Fixes for the backend service that would have unlocked all customization unlocks have overwhelmed our services and caused performance drops while the game continues to try and connect. We have implemented a fix and hope to have a hotfix out ASAP.

The primary focus of this release was to address as many major gameplay issues as possible that have been reported over the last couple of weeks, as well as a fix for Xbox / Windows 10 players who could no longer access cosmetic items they have unlocked through progression.

[AS-6164] - Fixed a major issue where vehicles would decide to take an unwelcome nap, and would remain stationary despite being powered.

[AS-5572] - Fixed a major issue in Multiplayer that would cause Client Player’s camera to be launched into space if the "Enter" command was pressed multiple times when entering a seat.

[AS-6127] - Added some guards and performance improvements to address the issue which occurred most often on lower end machines causing picked up and dropped items to fall through the terrain. There may still be some visible stuttering on lower end specs, but items should no longer be irretrievably lost.

[AS-6103] - "Up By the Roots" achievement should now become unlocked by unearthing Popcoral

[AS-6243] - Fixed a major issue where Players on Xbox / Win 10 would no longer see their unlocked cosmetic options as of version 1.0.6.0. The underlying issue had to do with the platform not properly communicating with our backend service and therefore not being able to pull down a player’s inventory. Actual player inventory was not affected and all items should be rightfully restored in the UI view as of version 1.0.7.0.

[AS-6070] - Fixed a major issue in Multiplayer that occurred when a Client Player disconnected a rover train the Host was driving, the towed vehicle could no longer be driven by any players.

[AS-6218] - Remove the use key quick stow capability (Edit: Clarification = We removed the 'hover over something + press F to Quickstow because it was causing some usability issues... namely for gamepad users who had something accidentally proximity selected that would wind up stowed.)

[AS-5857] - Fixed an issue in Multiplayer games where Terrain would be briefly invisible for Client Players when joining a Multiplayer game. Included in this fix are other improvements to the load / join experience which should result in a more consistent experience throughout the game.

[AS-6180] - Fixed a rare Multiplayer issue that would cause a rover train to become disconnected when Client Player drove the train.

[AS-6233] - Fixed an issue which would cause clouds to z-fight to death when viewed from distance and turn into a flickery soup.

[AS-6190] - The required resource icon at the subterranean Engine on Glacio has been changed to match the resource’s tool tip.

[AS-6114] - Removed the erroneous mention of Oxygen on the gas resources tab of the Astropedia

Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. (Update: We are working furiously to ease the pressure on the host machine in order to fix this. Turns out MANY non relevant items were being rendered (items below ground in caves for example) so we are working on implementing an unreal engine feature that will help this issue tremendously)

Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate. (Update: Verified that is happens when pressing "enter" twice before entering. Should be fixed in next week's update)

Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation (Update: turns out this might happen when other inputs are held while entering. Should be fixed in next week's patch)

Some modified terrain nodes will sometimes lose collision, causing players to quicksand into them. (Still debugging this issue. Seems like deformation is causing terrain node math to get into a weird state. Hoping to have this fixed next week)

Crashing on loading before the start menu (This seems to impact players on windows 7. If you are having this problem there is a workaround you can use while we work on the fix.

If you crash while in a shuttle in orbit, the shuttle will remain in orbit and your starting point might get broken. We have a solid repro of this and are tracking a fix.

UPDATE: 2/21/2019

Fixes for the backend service that would have unlocked all customization unlocks have overwhemed our services and caused performance drops while the game continues to try and connect. We have implemented a fix and hope to have a hotfix out ASAP.

Glad we got some of the gameplay bugs that impact the most players! Looking forward to continuing to squash gameplay bugs and get performance in line with what what we expect on all platforms!

This patch should already be deployed on Steam, and is in Xbox cert but because of the holiday on Monday, will likely not be deployed till Tuesday 2/19. You should expect our next patch on 2/22/19.

The primary focus of this release is addressing the top crashes we are seeing out in the wild. This patch also contains some performance improvements and other bug fixes.

Fixed several of our most commonly reported crashes increasing overall stability. Most notably, we have fixed crash which would occur when saving a game, causing that save game to be corrupted. Saved games affected by this issue should once again become playable after installing this update.

Made additional performance improvements to the Terrain system, specifically when deforming a lot of terrain.

[AS-5878] - Fixed a bug where Research Samples attached to the bottom of Hazards would fall through terrain when the Hazard was dug up.

[AS-5925] - Fixed an issue where Clients would not see the appropriate Oxygenator state in Multiplayer games.

[AS-5931] - Fixed a bug where undermining large EXO wrecks would cause them to jitter around wildly while they look for a stable resting spot.

[AS-6062] - Fixed a collision issue on some of the larger rocks and formations found on Vesania.

[AS-6088] - Fixed a bug where Hazards would be destroyed too quickly when dug up. The fix changes unburying behavior across the entire game to be more consistent for all objects.

[AS-6124] - Fixed a bug that caused foliage to shrink in place when harvesting with the Terrain Tool at maximum range

Made a few more small changes to how often we report back Achievement progress to our back end service. This should have no outward impact on the game, but will stabilize the connection to the service.

KNOWN ISSUES

Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. (Update: We are working furiously to ease the pressure on the host machine in order to fix this. Turns out MANY non relevant items were being rendered (items below ground in caves for example) so we are working on implementing an unreal engine feature that will help this issue tremendously)

Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate. (Update: Verified that is happens when pressing "enter" twice before entering. Should be fixed in next week's update)

Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation (Update: turns out this might happen when other inputs are held while entering. Should be fixed in next week's patch)

Some modified terrain nodes will sometimes lose collision, causing players to quicksand into them. (Still debugging this issue. Seems like deformation is causing terrain node math to get into a weird state. Hoping to have this fixed next week)

This is a patch that includes a handful of fixes to improve overall stability before the weekend.

[AS-6140] - Fixed an issue that would cause game audio to play through Oculus Tray Tool if it was running rather than speakers or headphones.

[AS-6138] - Reduced the number of times the game pings our backend service with Achievement progress. This is a speculative fix to the ongoing issue of Retro Suits not appearing for some Early Access / Game Preview players, which is caused by a failure of the service to properly retrieve your account inventory.

Made some targeted performance optimizations in the Terrain and Multiplayer systems.

Fixed a crash that would happen if speedy players attempted to open the catalog before their Astroneer had fully spawned in the world.

Fixed a rare, but annoying crash that would occur if a player deformed terrain then quickly exited the game, preventing the game from saving their terrain changes properly.

We also deployed version 1.0.3 to Xbox and Windows 10. Users should see performance improvements across the board, as well as fixes that were supposed to be in the game on day one. Now that this build has passed certification, we have been approved for the bypass group on Xbox which will allow us to deploy builds much faster. We thank you for your patience! We will be working to bring the Steam and Xbox versions of the builds in parity ASAP.

KNOWN ISSUES

Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. We are working hard to address this issue, it is at the top of our list with all of the other optimization we are currently doing.

Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate.

Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation

Not being able to download the game via the Windows 10 store. (we require the latest version of Windows 10 from October, so download that first and then you should be able to purchase the game

Crashing on loading before the start menu

No QOL for accessibility. We are working through a potential timeline to add QOL features for accessibility like colorblindness, mouse acceleration, and rebinding of all keys. We will release that timeline as soon as we are complete!

We are working furiously to get through these and many more issues! Please keep the bug reports coming in so we can continue to prioritize. Thanks!

Steam 'Early Access' players will receive this update November 14th, 2018.
Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines throughout the day November 14th, 2018.﻿

Update 0.10.5 contains a Tech Test of a new planet using an early version of Terrain 2.0, a new suit only for Early Access and Play Anywhere players, and bugfixes for the main version of the game. This will be the final early access update before 1.0!

UPDATES & INFO

Exotic Moon Tech Test

This build includes a first look at an early version of Exotic Moon. We are using it as a stress test for Terrain 2.0, the new technology we are using to generate planets. This planet is an earlier unfinished version than the current development one, so it will be missing large parts of the gameplay loop. You should expect to encounter bugs and missing gameplay. If you do, please report them on our forums so we can track major issues as we go through our bugfix phase before 1.0! No amount of feedback is too small! You can access the build by scrolling left on the starting menu space ship and loading "Terrain Tech Test"

Because the planet has missing decorators, effects, research, and resources, Exo Dynamics has provided the Astroneer with 100k bytes, and an experimental development plinth that provides all necessary resources to craft items. Consider this an EXTREMELY loose test for players who want "Creative Mode" type experience. Please give us feedback on what you would like to see included if Astroneer added a dedicated creative experience after 1.0!

Also, the planet has a fixed seed, so every player of the game will experience the same exact planet. Share your favorite mountains, caves, craters, and with others and directions on how to get there using the Astroneer's compass!

"Retro" Suit Unlock

As a gift to everyone who supported us throughout development, a new suit has been added to the game! This “Retro” suit is exclusively for Early Access and Game Preview players of Astroneer as a thanks for your ideas, bug reports, feedback, and encouragement. Anyone who owns the game before 1.0 will receive the "Retro" suit, and we have no plans for making it available to post 1.0 players. Thanks so much for your support thus far!

BUGFIXES

The following live issues have been fixed as of version 0.10.5.0:

[AS-3717] - Addressed an issue where some players were unable to join a Multiplayer game on Xbox One. We will keep monitoring to see if the issue persists, please let us know on the forums if you are still encountering this problem.

[AS-3983] - Fixed a bug where clicking on the opened Backpack while holding down a terrain modifier key breaks cursor selection

[AS-4003] - Fixed a Multiplayer bug where Client players could not start the Soil Centrifuge from the control panel

[AS-4047] - Fixed a bug where the Chemistry Lab would stop functioning mid-print if a player was holding enough resources to perform crafting twice

[AS-4088] - 3-Seat modules should now be appropriately facing outward when printing directly on an Extra Large Rover.

[AS-4602] - Fixed a rare, but annoying crash that occurred when players attempted to shred a second non-empty Oxygen tank with oxygen in it after shredding a non-empty Oxygen tank.

INFORMATION!

Release Date

Just in case you missed it, Astroneer now has a solid release date, February 6th, 2019! While we hoped to release the game into 1.0 right after the two year anniversary of our Early Access + Game Preview release in mid December, we have made the tough decision to delay the game 6 weeks to make sure we meet the quality bar we have for what we consider a polished 1.0 experience. The game is all but finished, but we ate up too much of our bugfix and performance time that we had slated for the end of development, and feel the few extra weeks of work will allow us to make Astroneer 1.0 a polished experience. We hope our players will understand! For more context about the decision, check out our developer Q&A that we posted on Youtube today, and then check out the release date announcement trailer to see just how different Astroneer is:

Price Increase

We always said we would revisit this once we got closer to 1.0, and now that we are here, it is time! Astroneer will be officially moving to a 1.0 launch price of $29.99 USD on November 19th 2018. Our 19.99 price point was always seen as a discount because the game was unfinished. Just as a reminder, Astroneer 1.0 will include 7 entirely new planets with multiple brand new biomes, new vehicles, modules, items, suits, and an exploration based experience! This also includes around a years worth of completely free content updates. You can view future content being considered on our roadmap.

That's all for now! This final update is a bittersweet one, this Early Access journey has been an amazing experience, and we cannot wait to deliver an incredible game on February 6th that we can all be proud of having worked on together. Thanks so much from every single member of our team.

Steam 'Early Access' players will receive this update September 6th, 2018.
Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines throughout the day September 6th, 2018.﻿

Update 0.10.1 contains a complete overhaul to the crafting and progression systems, including new resources, minerals, recipes, modules, and a new shuttle!

New Crafting ProgressionAstroneer now has multiple stages of crafting progression! In order to prepare for new items that will be added in 1.0 as well as creating a progression that encourages exploration, we have overhauled the progression of crafting. There are now new resources in the world to gather, completely new craftable resources, and a new resource type, Atmospheric! Now, in order to craft everything in the game, Astroneers must travel to different planets. Progression now happens in a few stages:

Stage 1: Gathering resources with your terrain tool. In addition to the existing in-game resources, there are several new mineral deposits found throughout the world, and different densities of those resources on different planets.

Stage 2: Smelting and Refining resources. Like the current version of Astroneer, step two requires smelting and refining materials. There are new smeltable resources, be sure to check their UI card for more details!

Smelter has been renamed “Smelting Furnace”

More resources can be smelted

Stage 3: Extracting resources from soil. This system has gotten a complete overhaul. Rather than just extracting all resources, the newly dubbed "Soil Centrifuge's" role is now to help Astroneers extract common resources without all of the manual labor. This should allow players to focus on finding rare resources and automate the process of gathering items like compound and resin.

Mineral Extractor has been refactored into the “Soil Centrifuge”

Centrifuge provides easy access to common and uncommon resources but no longer can create all resources.

Stage 4: Compositing two resources together. Stage 4 now requires some science! In order to create rare composite resources, Astroneers must use the "Chemisty Lab" to combine resources from the above steps. Rare resources will now sometimes require a specific atmospheric gas to create.

Hydrazine Catalyzer has been refactored into a “Chemistry Lab”

Brand new resources can be crafted by combining multiple resources together

Some high-level resources require an Atmospheric resource as a type of fuel

Stage 5: Collecting Atmospheric Resources. As mentioned above, Atmospheric Resources are a new resource, and the new Atmospheric Condenser is the way to gather them. Not all atmospheres have every gas, and some have higher concentrations of gases than others, so make sure to visit new planets in order to collect all gases for crafting!

Fuel Condenser has been refactored into the “Atmospheric Condenser”

Visuals for the module have been completely replaced

Allows you to collect different resources from the planet’s local atmosphere

Different planets have different resource availabilities!

New Resources and Recipes

A new ore has been added - Sphalerite. Sphalerite can be smelted into Zinc, and is found above ground and below ground on most planets.

New types of resource deposits have been added - Quartz, Clay, and Graphite.

Quartz can be smelted into Glass

Clay can be smelted into Ceramic

Organic can now be smelted into Carbon. Coal deposits have been removed from the game and any existing Coal nuggets have been migrated to Carbon nuggets. The Medium Generator now uses Carbon!

The following new crafted resources can be created at the Chemistry Lab:

Rubber

Plastic

Aluminum Alloy

Tungsten Carbide

Graphene

Diamond

Hydrazine

Silicone

Explosive Powder

Steel

Titanium Alloy

Nanocarbon Alloy

The following new atmospheric resources can be gathered using the Atmospheric Condenser:

Hydrogen

Argon

Methane

Nitrogen

Helium

Sulfur

To enable early game exploration of new planets, two new items have been added: the Solid-Fuel Thruster and the Small Shuttle.

The Solid-Fuel Thruster is unlocked in the Catalog for 500 Bytes and is printed from the Small Printer for 1 Aluminum and 1 Ammonium. This disposable thruster will enable you to take a one-way trip to another planet so you can collect the resources you need to complete your crafting progression. For your convenience, it prints to a small package that fits in your backpack, so be sure to take spares with you if you want to make round trips!

The Small Shuttle is unlocked in the Catalog for 1500 Bytes and is printed from the Vehicle Bay for 2 Aluminum. The Small Shuttle works with both the Hydrazine Thruster and the Solid-Fuel Thruster.

Recipes for many of the objects in game have changed! The goal of these changes is to give each item a clearer place in the crafting and gameplay progression. We hope players will now have a much more gratifying sense of progression as they unlock and craft new technology! Because this is such a big change for the game, we’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the forums.

General Changes

The Catalog has received a visual redesign! We heard your feedback loud and clear on this, and with all the new recipes, we decided to overhaul the catalog and the information provided within. We hope that players will now make better informed decisions when spending bytes and planning out progression!

It now shows the required print resources to help you decide how to spend your hard-earned bytes

To further streamline Research and Printing, researchable items have been arranged by the printer type they come from (Backpack, Small Printer, Medium Printer, Vehicle Bay) instead of their gameplay role.

All Fabricators have been renamed to Printers.

Collectible power nuggets and oxygen nuggets have been removed from the game!

To mitigate oxygen “rescue” moments, oxygen filters are unlocked by default and resin deposits are more common.

To mitigate power collection, the collectible nuggets surrounding hazards will collect as organic for small power generators.

Miscellaneous

Hovering over the required Resource holograms on printers now displays information about obtaining that Resource in their Tooltip. There are tons of new things, so this should help players find the resources they need!

EXO Wrecks and fallen Astroneer backpacks now have a chance to grant the newly added resources. See you in the stars fallen friends.

Byte values of researchable items have been adjusted

Byte costs of purchasable items have been adjusted

Bugfixes

The following live issues have been fixed as of version 0.10.1.0:

[AS-2487] - Fixed a bug where the Smelter sound loop would persist for Client players in Multiplayer games after smelting has finished

[AS-2676] - Fixed a bug where the Client player in Multiplayer games was unable to hear the Smelter when it was active

[AS-3330] - Fixed a bug where the Client player in Multiplayer games was not able to see the preview holograms while printing Medium and Large Rovers

[AS-3341] - Fixed a bug where Vehicle Bay will pop to center of the Shelter once it has been unpacked

[AS-3362] - Fixed a minor issue with the Medium Solar hologram which appeared too bright in the Catalog

[AS-3363] - Fixed a minor issue with the Terrain Analyzer image clipping through the background of the Catalog

[AS-3419] - Control + Click shortcut should once again work on the Landing Zone control panel

[AS-3426] - Fixed a bug with the item pads of small objects becoming separated from the object under certain conditions

[AS-3461] - Fixed an issue where Fireworks explosion became visually offset with the rocket

[AS-3465] - Smelter will no longer drop items to the ground when queuing up resources

[AS-3509] - Items will no longer fall out of world when packages are unpacked upside down

[AS-3522] - Fixed a bug where the green light on the side of certain module packages did not light up

[AS-3523] - Fixed a bug where Printers were not prevented from printing when items were placed in the center of the preview hologram

[AS-3541] - Fixed a long term usability issue where Smelter slots did not have priority over platform slots for placing ores for processing.

[AS-3571] - FIxed a visual issue where the Medium Storage became unskinned for a brief moment when unpacking

[AS-3602] - Fixed a number of localization issues in the Quick Help menu screens

[AS-3608] - Fixed a number of objects whose holograms appeared too large in the Catalog and caused readability issues with localized text

[AS-3647] - Fixed a bug where the Small Fabricator could finish its current printing process while being stowed in the backpack

[AS-3665] - Resources found in the white resource caches now show UI information cards

[AS-3669] - Exit key is no longer present in the shuttle UI when in orbit

[AS-3739] - Fixed an issue that occured when the player died with the research catalog open which caused previously unlocked items to show as locked and unpurchasable after respawn.

KNOWN ISSUES:

You should not be able to slot anything in the Chemistry Lab tray. Doing so will brick the Chemistry Lab once you start the process. We will be fixing this in a hotfix. For now, make sure to leave the tray empty when creating items.

UPDATE: The above known issue has now been fixed in 0.10.2! The hotfix has been deployed on Steam and will be deployed on Xbox once it goes through cert!

Steam 'Early Access' players will receive this update today, August 6th, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines throughout the day August 6th , 2018.

Update 0.9.2 contains the groundwork for extensive changes to the crafting and resource systems, as well as additions to printer lists and changes to printers overall!

UPDATES
You can find these updates in 0.9.2.0, the current build of the game.

NEW RESOURCES AND RECIPE CHANGES

New resource deposits have been added to the solar system! Titanite, Wolframite, and Hematite deposits can now be found on the surface of planets and in caves. But you won’t be able to find all of these on Terran, intrepid Astroneers will have to travel the solar system in order to find the new resources.

Titanium has been changed to be the refined form of Titanite.

Wolframite and Hematite can be smelted into Tungsten and Iron, respectively.

New recipes have been added to include these new smelted resources! New resources need new recipes to print them! These are just a few items that will be using this new resource progression, be on the look out for more items in updates very soon

Drill Head: 1 Tungsten and 1 Resin

Extra Large Platform: 2 Iron

Extra Large Storage: 2 Iron and 2 Aluminum

Fireworks: 1 Titanium

Thruster: 2 Tungsten

GENERAL CHANGES

- Medium Printer has been removed as part of an ongoing effort to streamline crafting. With the introduction of the Small and Medium Fabricators, the Medium Printer became increasingly redundant and created confusion about where objects can be crafted.

All objects that previously printed from the Medium Printer can now be crafted from the Small Fabricator.

Existing Medium Printers in saved games have been automatically converted to Small Fabricators.

- Thruster is now a craftable object. It is available in the Catalog for 2000 Bytes and prints from the Small Fabricator for 2 Tungsten.

- The respawn rate of Harvestables has been positively adjusted!

- EXO wrecks can now be found in caves! Adventurous Astroneers will also discover new large wrecks on the surface that hint to each planet’s theme.

- The orange launch button has been removed from the Shuttles. You can now use the Auxiliary keys (Z / X on keyboard or RB / LB on gamepad) to launch into orbit.

- Beacons have received a small update and a bug fix.

Beacons are once again visible when slotted. Now players actually can locate their vehicles if a beacon has been put in a slot on the chassis.

They can now be turned off. This option is available when you finish cycling through all of the color options using the input keys.

They can now be turned on, off, and their color can be changed using the aux keys when slotted onto an auxiliary slot on vehicles and backpacks.

BUGS & CRASH FIXES

The following live issues have been fixed as of version 0.9.2.0:

A number of frequently occurring low-level crashes have been fixed, increasing overall stability.

[AS-2475] - Fix an issue where the Backpack "No power” notification did not account for attached extra power from batteries.

[AS-2521] - Fixed an issue in Multiplayer games where an incorrect required resource notification is displayed when a Client player scrolls between craftable objects with a resource in their backpack.

[AS-2576] - Picking up or quick stowing a bundleable item into the Backpack no longer starts a new bundle if a non-full bundle of that item is already in the backpack.

[AS-2598] - Fixed a Multiplayer issue where the Backpack printer did not display necessary resource to craft for the Client player.

[AS-3256] - If you open the catalog while your terrain tool is out, it will be put away. This fixed an issue where the mouse did not work with the catalog if the catalog was opened while the terrain tool was equipped.

[AS-3261] - Fixed an issue where Medium Generators attached to a Rover aux slot could not be toggled using the aux keys.

[AS-3267] - Fixed an issue in the Tutorial, where the Research Module control panel could not be examined when the progress tooltip refreshed too quickly.

Steam 'Early Access' players will receive this update July 6th, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines throughout the day July 6th , 2018.

Update 0.9.0 contains a new gameplay mechanic and module, the Shredder, and tons of new things to discover while exploring planets!

UPDATES
You can find these updates in 0.9.0.0, the current build of the game.

NEW DISCOVERY TYPE - EXO WRECKS

Players can now find new types of EXO discoveries while exploring! From small crashed dropships to sprawling empty outposts, these discoveries await you on the surface of all planets across the solar system. Some of these structures are still somewhat usable… will you strip them of their goods, or settle down and repurpose their working parts into a new base of operations? Some of these include:

Solar and wind farms

Wrecked dropships

Abandoned spaceports

These discoveries will also provide valuable parts that you can use for shredding, which brings us to our next addition...

SHREDDER AND SCRAP

The Small Shredder and Medium Shredder have been added to the game! Shredding is a new gameplay mechanic in Astroneer, that will allow players to use found and created materials to create Scrap, a new resource. Scrap is created by shredding items and modules you no longer need, or wrecked objects and debris you find in the world. Players can then use scrap to trade for materials at the Trade Platform.

The Small Shredder is available in the Catalog for 500 Bytes and prints from the Small Fabricator for 1 Aluminum

Medium Shredder is available in the Catalog for 1000 Bytes and prints from the Medium Fabricator for 2 Aluminum

TRADE PLATFORM

The trade platform has been updated to be the primary source of trading for Scrap. Instead of trading using crafting materials, you now use the trade platform to send scrap away in exchange for resources you might need! We will continue to make adjustments to the exchange rates so make sure to let us know how these work for you!

IN-GAME UI IMPROVEMENTS

As part of ongoing improvements to the in-game UI, the Power and Oxygen status visualizations have been changed to icons and notification tags rather than floating text.

Hovering over another player in Multiplayer games now gives you a bit of information about them.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

Harvestables now appear on Radiated and Arid, as well as in Caves on all planets! The design team is eager to hear your feedback on respawn rates and point grant values of Harvestables. Please visit the forums, or other social channels, and let us know what you think!

All Rovers now have tighter turn radius, enabling more awesome donut maneuvers, but also better maneuverability in caves.

BUGS & CRASH FIXES

A number of frequently occurring low-level crashes have been fixed, increasing overall stability.

[AS-3127] - Fixed a crash that occurred when printing a Large Shuttle both a Power Nugget and directional power to the Vehicle Bay.

[AS-762] - Fixed a UI bug where the text on the Vehicle Bay would flip upside down when approaching it in a vehicle.

[AS-877] - Fixed a long standing issue in the Trade Platform where the trade resources would appear inconsistently between client and host players in Multiplayer games.

[AS-2792] - Fixed an Audio issue where storm effects would not return if a player entered and then exited a cave during a storm.

[AS-2840] - Footstep sound effects have returned!

[AS-2841] - Fixed an Audio issue where the Lowpass filter would remain in effect after dying.

[AS-3048] - Adjusted the headers in the Quick Help menu so they no longer overlap in Windowed mode or with longer translations.

[AS-3065] - Fixed a bug where a Terrain Analyzer occupying a Backpack slots would interfere with the ability to place objects directly into the Backpack.

[AS-3097] - Fixed a camera collision issue that occurred when a player would pan across in front of the Habitat causing the Landing pad to flicker in and out.

[AS-3104] - Small platforms should no longer topple over easily on uneven ground.

[AS-3106] - Filter hologram should once again be present on the Backpack printer preview.

[AS-3114] - Fixed an issue where an unusable Examine prompt would appear when selecting the Small Fabricator in your Backpack.

[AS-3129] - The Dropship should no longer be deployable when it is placed on a Shuttle.

[AS-3149] - Fixed an Audio issue where only the first hydrazine canister attached to a shuttle would play its associated SFX when fuel is transferred into shuttle tank.

[AS-3150] - Fixed an annoying issue where Hard Terrain and its surrounding terrain could not be flattened together without the appearance of a small gap or jagged edges.

[AS-3175] - Tooltips no longer remain visible on the Terrain Tool after closing the Backpack.

[AS-3289] - Fixed a major issue on the Xbox One causing the game to not save after entering the Habitat and then powering down the console.

KNOWN ISSUES

In a higher latency situation, rejoining players may appear at first where they last were in a Multiplayer game, but due to latency, input is still bound to the EXO satellite and on pressing 'A' they get relaunched from the station.

The addition of new POI's and Discovery types will cause terrain seams in old saves. This will no longer be an issue once Terrain 2.0 gets rolled out.

Thanks for reading!

-jt

]]>48281Mon, 25 Jun 2018 22:05:53 +0000Update 0.8.0 - June 14th, 2018https://forum.systemera.net/topic/47989-update-080-june-14th-2018/HAVE YOU PLAYED THE TUTORIAL? FILL OUT THIS SURVEY TO GIVE US FEEDBACK!

Steam 'Early Access' players will receive this update today, June 14th, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines throughout the day today, June 14th, 2018.

Update 0.8.0 contains a new tutorial, a complete overhaul to the UI, and a completely new element in the Research system, Harvestables!

UPDATES
You can find these updates in 0.8.0.0, the current build of the game.

The game has an all-new Tutorial experience that is accessible from a new drop pod in the Main Menu! The goal of the new Tutorial is to introduce the basic concepts of Terrain deformation, Oxygen / Power management, Research, Exploration, and Basebuilding in a more streamlined way to new players. We hope that this tutorial will be good for new players to Astroneer, but also to players who haven't played the game in a while but are coming back!

When launching Astroneer 0.8.0.0 for the first time, new and returning players will be prompted to try the new Tutorial. Returning players can skip the Tutorial and it will be available to replay at any time from the Main Menu.

In order to match the unlock progression of the Tutorial, new games will now begin with the Canister, Tethers, Small Generator, and Open 1-Seat unlocked, in addition to the modules and platforms already available by default.

Even if you’re already familiar with the game, we encourage you to play through the new Tutorial. We will continue iterating on the experience over the coming months so please be sure to share your feedback with us in the forums!

The game has been updated with a V1 of an overhaul to all of Astroneer’s in-game text UI. Instead of persistent floating text, almost all interactive items, modules, chassis, and resources, have been updated with a "UI card" visual design.

All modules and resources now have an icon associated with them.

Hovering over holographic input indicators will now tell you the resource required for module, printer, and fabricator recipes.

Proximity-based tooltips have been added to all embedded Resources.

Position indicators have been removed from vehicles, so be sure to print Beacons and slot them on your Vehicles if you intend to walk very far away!

Some areas like: main menu UI, spaceflight UI, Backpack UI, as well as UI for the Trade Module and Mineral Extractor will be updated in a future release.

There are now special plant and mineral formations on Terran, Barren, Arid, and Exotic planets that spawn unique objects you can instantly research for a variable amount of Bytes. These Harvestables will respawn their research items over time, and also have a chance to spawn a large, single-use Research Item at their root. Be warned, though: uprooting the plant or mineral will prevent it from respawning their instant-use research items. So weigh your options carefully between single use and respawning values - and be careful where you dig! The goal of the Harvestables system is to smooth out the starting gameplay experience by offering small, renewable sources of Bytes in areas that might have a low density of Research Chests, and to provide interesting points of interaction across the surface of planets.

Your Backpack inventory and location are now preserved between multiplayer game sessions! When returning to your friend’s saved games or rejoining after a lost connection, your Astroneer will load in the last location you left them. Also, in order to fix a number of bugs that could occur if clients joined before the host deployed the shelter, multiplayer is now unavailable until the host has landed on the starting planet and deployed the shelter.

BUGS

[AS-2855] -- Fixed an issue where storms were appearing pixelated for players on the Xbox One

[AS-2890] - Fixed a bug with Generators so they once again pull available organic from backpack slots

[AS-2894] - Fixed a bug where Terrain Analyzer color meters changed to black upon exiting game and reloading the saved game.

[AS-2917] - Audio should now reset properly after Astroneer death.

[AS-2935] - Player backpack oxygen tank should once again pull oxygen from connected tanks or filters.

KNOWN ISSUES
In a higher latency situation, rejoining players may appear at first where they last were in a Multiplayer game, but due to latency, input is still bound to the EXO satellite and on pressing 'A' they get relaunched from the station.

Also, just in case you missed it, we were at E3 and announced some big news! Astroneer is now slated to go into full 1.0 in December 2018! We will be updating the roadmap to reflect the rest of our plans during Early Access, but rest assured, we will continue updating and adding to the game in order to make 1.0 a huge advancement of Astroneer! Click here if you want to hear more about what we revealed at E3, including news about cross-play between Steam and Xbox via dedicated servers, increased multiplayer counts, and more. When you are done with that watch the E3 trailer below!

Steam 'Early Access' users will receive this update later today, Tuesday May 8th, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines later today, Tuesday May 8th, 2018.

Rovers are now more configurable than ever! The Rover Update contains a new vehicle, updated driving controls, new methods to use rovers in fun ways, and a ton of performance upgrades!

UPDATES

VEHICLES

The Small Rover has been added to the game. It is available in the Catalog for 1000 Bytes and prints from the Vehicle Bay for 2 Compound.

Absolute Steering has been implemented for vehicles. Vehicles are now controlled by the movement keys regardless of camera position! (WASD by default on keyboards, and RT / LT and the left thumbstick on controllers). Absolute Steering is enabled by default as of this update, but players may change back to the original camera-directed steering mode by disabling Absolute Steering in the options menu.

The physics model for Rovers has been overhauled.

Lateral friction has been added to wheels to prevent rampant sliding.

Drag force has been added to Rover acceleration for a more natural velocity cap and more natural steering at high speeds.

Acceleration forces now take contact normals into consideration to allow wheels to “roll” over smaller obstacles instead of plowing into them.

Contextual Button activation have been implemented for vehicles. Certain items attached to the Auxiliary Slots on vehicles can now be activated by pressing the Contextual Buttons (Z / X or RB / LB by default). More items, such as the Drill and Winch, will become usable in this way in future updates.

The Thruster has been revised to work better with Rovers. Have fun!

Can now be toggled using the above Contextual Buttons when attached to the Vehicle Auxiliary Slots.

Applies a more balanced force for better in-air stability.

Can now accelerate Rovers above their max drive speeds.

The research cost and recipe of the Medium Rover has been adjusted. Its cost is now 3000 Bytes (up from 2000 Bytes) and requires 2 Compound and 2 Aluminum to print.

The built-in batteries on the Medium and Large Rover have been tuned to require more active power sources. The primary reason for the power and recipe changes is to further differentiate the roles of the Medium and Large Rovers from the Small Rover. The Small Rover is intended to be used a light exploration vehicle, while the Medium and Large Rover are meant to serve as heavier haulers and mobile bases.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

We have made a number of improvements to performance on both PC and Xbox, particularly targeting very large save files and multiplayer games. Specific areas of focus include infrastructure refactors and fixes, removing unnecessary animation overhead, reducing the processing cost of deformation, and optimizing older assets that have not been updated in quite some time. This is an ongoing effort that will continue throughout Early Access, but this latest effort should be noticeable for players on the Xbox in particular. Xbox One now utilizes DirectX 12, further improving rendering efficiency on Xbox One and will allow for future rendering quality improvements.

HDR
Xbox One X and Xbox One S consoles can now play the game in HDR. Please calibrate your monitor using the default Xbox One calibration screen prior to launching the game.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

The ‘Flatten Mode’ on the Terrain Tool has been adjusted to provide more consistent results at any angle.

Reward tables of Discoveries have been updated with new items.

Additional Quick Help screens have been added to the game to help you after the initial Tutorial experience. Press F1 on your keyboard or the Menu button on your gamepad to check them out!

Fixed a number of issues with wheel collision which were causing Vehicle wheels to stretch in strange ways. These fixes should greatly reduce the number instances of stretchy wheels.
[AS-2597] - Fixed a bug where some Fabricators displayed nonfunctional contextual verbs.
[AS-2599] - Fixed an issue where the 'Use' and 'Examine' inputs prompts did not properly respond to input
[AS-2622] - Fixed an interaction bug where the 'Exit' prompt displays instead of 'Enter' when one or two seats of a 3-Seat attachment are occupied.
[AS-2630] - Fixed a bug where a on-functional 'Place’ verb appeared when interacting with another player’s Habitat
[AS-2637] - Fixed a bug where a player could not operate Winch if another player occupied vehicle it was attached to.
[AS-2647] - Fixed an intermittent bug where the Client players model did not appear to animate to the Host player while using the Terrain Tool.
[AS-2675] - Fixed an issue where Vehicles became embedded in certain kinds of terrain when printed from the Vehicle Bay.
[AS-2689] - The Habitat side slots can once again hold resources and other 1-slot items.
[AS-2690] - Fixed an annoying bug where the Vehicle Bay became inoperable for the Client player if the Host was using the control panel while the Client was joining the game.
[AS-2691] - Fixed a bug where a non-functional ‘Enter’ command appeared when hovering over another player’s Drop Pod in Multiplayer.
[AS-2695] - power cells look like holograms on clients
[AS-2736] - Fixed a graphical corruption in the power conduit material.
[AS-2754] - Fixed a minor issue with Research rates showing decimal places off-screen on the control panel.
[AS-2844] - Fixed an issue where players could infinitely replicate smelted items. Sorry, not sorry.
Fixed a number of localization bugs in the “Learn More” help screens.

KNOWN ISSUES

Storm textures showing up as pixelated on the Xbox One

Audio might become muffled after an Astroneer dies. We are working to resolve this issue.

The game sometimes loses audio when settings are changed. This can be fixed by deleting your game usersettings.ini

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone has fun driving the new rover! We will talk again around E3 edit: and also here is the trailer!

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update April 1, 2019. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines April 1, 2019.

The Astro Royale Update marks a huge moment during Astroneer Early Access development! 100 Astroneers parachute onto a planet to prove they are Exo Dynamics's top spacefaring Astro. This update will include a new vehicle, 1 million free cosmetic items, and a full cinematic story with characters voiced by Elon Musk, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Goldblum & Astronaut Peggy Whitson. Here are the first screenshots from this new game mode.

We are continuing to monitor crashes but this one was our worst offender and we felt it warranted a fix. Thanks to everyone who reported this issue and send crashdumps! 0.6.8 Will be deployed to Xbox Play Anywhere as soon as it gets through certification!

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update today, Thursday March 15th, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines Thursday March 15th, 2018.

UPDATESYou can find these updates in 0.6.5.0, the current build of the game. As always, we recommend starting a new save when playing new updates. Older saves should work, but will definitely experience bugs.

VEHICLES

The Medium Rover and Large Rover have received a visual update. This includes new front and back slots which provide extra storage. These slots will only be active if the power line below them is unconnected. Once the power line is connected to another Rover or Platform base, the slots will fold down and drop any items attached to them. Old rovers should transfer over seamlessly.

The visual representation for Rover batteries has been changed. But their discharge and capacity is unchanged.

Rovers have received an update to their suspension. Handling should be much better. Also, gravity on vehicle chassis has been adjusted so Mobile bases should be more stable.

The power connection between Rovers and Platforms has been changed to directional. Now, you can very easily tell if your rover is consuming or providing power from your base. You can use this directional line to prevent the rover from mistaken power draw or discharge.

Research unlock costs relating to Vehicles have been reduced. This change has been made to encourage acquiring Rovers earlier in progression. Specifically:

The Vehicle Bay cost has been reduced from 1000 Bytes to 250 Bytes

The Medium Rover cost has been reduced from 2400 Bytes to 2000 Bytes

The Large Rover cost has been reduced from 8000 Bytes to 6000 Bytes

The Open 1-Seat cost has been reduced from 600 Bytes to 300 Bytes

POWER

A three port Splitter object has been added to the game. The Splitter takes in a power line and creates up to two adjustable directed streams. It is available in the Catalog for 1000 Bytes and prints from the Small Fabricator for 1 Copper.

Directional power visualization has been updated for clarity. The previous version was just placeholder art. The marching chevrons should now be much more readable at a glance.

Power Cells behavior has been changed. They now act as an on demand, single use battery which will only discharge when power is needed by the item they are attached to. Oh, they also no longer provide infinite power.

BASEBUILDING

Modules can now be unpacked on top of Rover bases enabling a kind of Mobile base.

You will still need immense amounts of power to operate a base on wheels, but this should allow for our nomadic players to continue base operations on the go. Also, be aware that once unpacked, base modules on rovers are linked forever. <3

Added new Platform and Storage variants to the game! (KNOWN ISSUE: OLD FABRICATORS WILL NOT UPDATE TO INCLUDE THE NEW PLATFORMS. UNTIL WE ISSUE A FIX, PRINT A NEW FABRICATOR TO SEE THE ENTIRE LIST OF PRINTABLE PLATFORMS.)

Medium Platform B - More compact version of the Medium Platform, costs 250 Bytes to research and 1 Resin to print.

Large Platform B - More compact version of the Large Platform, costs 500 Bytes to research and 2 Resin to print.

Large Platform C - Winged version of the Large Platform which swaps the Tier 2 side slots for 20 Tier 1 slots, costs 2000 Bytes to unlock and 2 Aluminum to print.

Extra Large Platform - An octagonal platform with a single Tier 4 slot, and eight cable sockets, costs 3000 Bytes to unlock and 2 Aluminum to print.

Extra Large Storage - A domed Tier 4 storage platform that prints on top of a Large Rover, or an XL Platform. It contains 31 Tier 1 storage slots, costs 3000 Bytes to unlock, and 2 Compound and 2 Aluminum to print.

The Vehicle Bay can now be operated by a Control Panel.

Module Control Panels have received a lighting pass

INTERACTION

A large number of the orange floating UI buttons have been removed from the game and replaced with interaction verbs. Your bases should look a bit less like a Las Vegas light show.

The default Use verb has been replaced with contextual interaction verbs. For instance the Work Light now uses the verbs “Turn On” and “Turn Off,” while Drop Pods, Habitats, and Seats now use “Enter” and “Exit.”

AUDIO UPDATES

Update Smelter Audio, better end loops. Less Abrupt.

add variations for Base Building.

Hazard Plant SFX

OTHER UPDATES
Items in the Catalog have been slightly reorganized.

BUG FIXES

[AS-1831] - Fixed a longstanding bug where Tether lines did not go dark in Multiplayer games when disconnected from an Oxygen source.

[AS-2237] - Fixed a bug where the Astroneer’s headlamp would turn off while dying inside a Drop Pod

[AS-2545] - Fixed an issue with cables twisting in strange ways in relation to the planet center.

[AS-2546] - Fixed an issue with power sockets on platforms twisting cables in strange ways in relation to the planet center.

Due to the physics constraints of the world, vehicle chains have once again been limited to a maximum of 4 Rover bases.

[AS-2570] - Drop Pods should no longer launch into space when invoking the Use command.

[AS-2572] - Large Solar arrays can once again be moved by the Winch!

[AS-2574] - Mineral Extractor and Smelter should once again auto-pull from and auto-deposit into connected storage.

Fixed several recurring crashes on PC and Xbox One which should increase general stability.

ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT

This update we are doing things a little differently, with an update of the roadmap: (view it here) directly from Veronica, our wonderful Producer:

Greetings Astroneers!

Since we're nearing the end of March, and the first quarter of 2018, it's time for a Roadmap update! Our key features from Q1 have now been released: Basebuilding, Streaming Power, update to Vehicles including mobile bases and physics stability fixes. We also made big changes to the interaction system, modifying gamepad controls and introducing Examine and contextual Use verbs.

A few things we had that we started this quarter are not quite yet ready to move over to the "Released Features" column. The biggest ones to mention are Directional Steering for Vehicles and adding new Hazard and Discovery types to the game. The good news is, these things are in progress right now with Andrew working on steering, and our new Content Designer, Annie, working hard on bringing new discoverables into the world. You should see the fruits of their labor within the next couple of updates!

Ahead of us in Q2 and beyond are the two remaining big systems - Terrain 2.0 and Dedicated Servers. I am happy to report that both are in full swing, with Adam working on the first new planet using the Terrain 2.0 tech, and Carl currently working on ensuring players on dedicated servers are able to preserve their game state when logging on and off. We're looking forward to sharing these features with you later this year!

Overall, everything you see in the Q2 column is already in progress and we are very pleased with how things are coming together. We can't wait for you to play with the new planets, vehicles, modules, resources, discoveries, and much much more. Thank you for your ongoing support and feedback!

1. Fabricators and printers made in a previous save will not display the newly unlocked platforms. Create new fabricators and printers in version 0.6.5 to print new items.

2. Rovers and connected seats made in previous versions of Astroneer will display odd behavior, including bouncing when entering, and issues when using the "USE" action. To alleviate this issue, create new rovers & seats in version 0.6.5 or use the (ALT + CLICK) shortcut to immediately use something.

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Thanks for reading Astroneers! As always, thanks so much for the feedback, bug reports, & suggestions! This coming week we will be at GDC in the Epic Games booth showing Astroneer, so if you are headed to SF, and want to meet for a beverage, a high five or to talk business, drop me a line! joe@systemera.net

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update today, Wednesday February 28th, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines Wednesday February 28th, 2018.

This patch addresses some issues introduced during the Basebuilding Update, as well as a quality of life fix for large storage!

UPDATESYou can find these updates in 0.6.2.0, the current build of the game. We issued hotfix 0.6.1 to Steam to address some of these issues, but are squeezing in a bit more, as well as issuing all of the fixes for Xbox Play Anywhere!

Large Storage on a Rover or on a Large Platform will now pass-through power! We are extremely excited that players are finding all new ways to plug different base and vehicle modules together, and realized we needed to add some functionality to large storage to account for that. Now generators, wind vanes, and solar panels connected to Large Storage will pass power through to the platform or vehicle they are printed on. Additionally, we are working on new platforms, storage units and more to keep expanding on the variety of configurations for bases. Details soon.

BUG FIXES

Fixed missing sounds that were not loading for fireworks and other items

Fixed an interaction but that resulted in players being unable to use the terrain tool after sitting in a 3-seat on a Shuttle or Large Rover

Fixed a bug where users were able to unpack base modules that were not on a Large Platform.

Fixed a bug where a battery that was plugged into a power pool would constantly tell the player it was full

Fixed a bug where running platforms that got disconnected would then gain infinite power

Fixed a bug that would result in "wireless power" for disconnected platforms

Fixed a bug that caused a full Mineral Extractor to turn into Barad-dûr, resulting in the Eye of Sauron's gaze to follow your every move in your solar system.

CRASH FIXES

Fixed and added guards against crashes resulting from the array of connections while regenerating and merging Tether networks

Fixed and added guards against crashes resulting from the unpack animation failing to play

KNOWN ISSUESWe are aware of the following issues, but they didn't make this patch. Thanks to the users who have reported these, we will address them in our next content update, coming in March.

Corpses in the habitat from disconnected players trap players in the Habitat. Until we a get a fix in, make sure players do not disconnect while sitting in the Habitat! You can almost always jump your way out, or examine the corpse to start the despawn timer.

Rovers sometimes become stuck in terrain on save/load.

Power nuggets no longer charge batteries. They do however, still power rovers and other battery based items one their batteries have been depleted.

Clients in multiplayer sometimes cannot see holograms on modules or in the Catalog.

Invoking the use action on a printable Habitat sometimes causes the player to simultaneously grab it, causing them to rocket into space.

The burn-off particle effect shoots across the entire screen.

Large platforms are intended to create oxygen in this build. We plan on changing this behavior in an upcoming update.

Extractors no longer autofeed from connected storage

Solar Array crashes are no longer moveable

Thanks to everyone for the feedback regarding the Basebuilding Update! Looking forward to sharing details very soon about content in our update in a few weeks.

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update today, Thursday February 22nd, 2018. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines Thursday February 22nd, 2018.

The Basebuilding update is Astroneer's biggest update to date. Whether underground, on a mountaintop, or on far away planets, the all new Basebuilding and Power systems will allow you to create efficient bases that are all your own. This update includes 20+ new art pieces, which includes new platforms, modules, items to print, and much more. With that being said, this update is only the beginning for Basebuilding as a system. We have already begun development on more features and content to continue growing the already robust foundation.

UPDATESYou can find these updates in 0.6.0.0, the current build of the game.

UPDATE: We have just deployed version 0.6.1.0 to Steam (Xbox Play Anywhere will get this as soon as possible) with a few bug fixes:

Fixed a few crashes that were occurring

Fixed missing sounds that were not loading for fireworks and other items

Fixed an interaction but that resulted in players being unable to use the terrain tool after sitting in a 3-seat on a Shuttle

Fixed a bug where users were able to unpack base modules that were not on a Large Platform.

We are also aware of "remote" ghost connections, issues with rover power, and infinite power loops. We are working on a fix, thanks for your patience!

Introduction of the Basebuilding System

Creating bases has changed fundamentally at its core. Now Astroneers can create bases however they like with a variety of new movable platforms and new ways to connect those platforms together.

We have introduced free standing movable base platforms. Three all new Platforms have been added. Two versions of the Medium Platform, and a platform for base modules, the Large Platform. These objects can now be placed and rotated individually, allowing for greater flexibility in base configurations. Lock platforms into place by connecting them to power. If you want to move them again, just disconnect all power lines.

Introducing: Fabricators. Fabricators are portable printers that allow you to make bases. Pop up the new control panel, pick what you want to fabricate, and in the end you will have a crate you can unpack immediately or bring with you anywhere you go. The Small Fabricator allows you to bootstrap an entire base from your Backpack and is used to print Medium Platforms and Medium Fabricators. The Medium Fabricator is for printing Large Platforms and Base Modules. Medium Printers and Vehicle Bays remain unchanged for now.

The starting Habitat module has received a visual update.Complete with a built in Oxygenator, Power Generation System, nighttime running lights, and 4 power connectors, the new Habitat is top of the line Exo Dynamics technology.

All printed base Modules and Platforms now come in the form of packaged crates.This allows them them to be moved or stored before deploying. Hovering over a crate on the ground or a Module on a Platform will show a hologram preview of its orientation. Base module crates can only be unpacked while on top of a platform, so keep that in mind when planning your base.

Added a new Landing Pad which automatically deploys next to a new Habitat. The Landing Pad is used to call in your first packaged items, and as zone for other players who join your session to land. Be aware that calling in new packages to the landing pad will destroy the extant ones. We plan on adding more functionality to the landing pad in the future. For now, shuttles will still land in the area in front of a vehicle bay.

Bases created in previous builds will automatically migrate to the new Basebuilding system. When loading into an old save, Platforms and Modules will be converted to their movable, packaged form. We tried to support old saves as best we could so there was no loss of items, but terrain might not always generate properly. As always though, use old saves at your own risk.

All holograms have received a visual update. They should now be much more readable at all times of day.

The introductory landing sequence has been updated. We will continue to improve on the introductory sequence in future updates.

Implemented an all new Power System

Changed the Power System over to a system that uses streaming shared power pools.That means items that need power pull from available power generators on a connected network. All Modules, Rovers, and crashed solar arrays have been migrated to use this new power system. To see how a network is doing, check out the new power indicators on platforms.

Cable and Cable Connector Art has been updated. Cables and their Connectors are now indicators for how much power is running through a network. When the indicator is red, the network needs power and all Modules connected to it will not run at optimal efficiency. As you add more power, the indicator will begin to expand, and connected Modules will run faster.

Added a new directional power tool, Extenders. Extenders are printable in bundles of five from your backpack. Extenders provide directed power flow, which redirects excess power from one pool to another. Drag a cable from the extender to indicate the direction of power and where you would like it to flow. Power flow is indicated by the large chevron on the cable.

Added small standalone platforms for small power items. When placed on the ground, Small Solar Panels, Small Generators, Small Wind Vanes. and Worklights will now deploy standalone bases with two Power Connectors on them. Use these to add power to your network, power bespoke standalone platforms, or as extenders that also add power. Small worklight bases also contain spikes can now stick to any terrain surface regardless of orientation.

Interaction Updates

A new interaction verb “Use” has been added to the game. Holding Use (by default E on keyboard and X on the Gamepad) triggers using an object. It is also used to get in and out of vehicles and the Habitat.

A new interaction verb “Examine” has been added to the game. Holding Examine (by default Q on keyboard and Y on the Gamepad) triggers examining an object or its control panel.

Holding Q on keyboard or Y on Gamepad will now open the Catalog whether or not the Backpack is open. This is a change from the double-Q / double-Y interaction from previous releases.

Shoulder buttons can now toggle items in the Backpack Auxiliary slots on and off.

Interactions that need to be held rather than tapped, like Use and Examine, now have a visual indicator ring around them.

Platforms and Modules can be rotated using Z / X keyboard and RB / LB on Gamepad by default.

When standing close enough to power slots, Gamepad users will auto-select slots that can pull connections.

The Backpack printer can now be used with the directional pad and A button, rather than having to use the Gamepad cursor.

Small Generators will now automatically turn on when an Organic resource is added.

Firework rocket has been added to the Catalog as an unlockable object. Happy Lunar New Year!

Control Panel buttons, including the Research Platform, have been updated to change color and icon depending on whether pressing it will start, stop, or cancel a process, or if there is insufficient power.

Tutorial help menu carousel has been updated to include Basebuilding, Power, and Interaction changes.

Informational widgets that appear at the bottom of the screen have received updated visuals.

Optimized rendering of hovering info text that appears over holograms, along with other minor framerate optimizations.

Made several changes to the gravity system to improve stability of Rovers.

Medium Generators now provide about 30% more power

If you want to see the other stuff that happened this month that didn't make it,check out our vlogsfor weekly insight to what the team is doing.

BUG FIXES

Fixed several issues causing Rovers to float when outside of physics range. There should now be fewer instances of Rovers going on a beautiful journey into space.

Unified the simulation of the vehicle chain. This should mean many less vehicle physics freakouts going forward.

Fixed an Xbox One crash that sometimes occurred when players were transitioning into Multiplayer games, improving overall stability.

Fixed a minor issue where large rocks would not despawn when dislodged, causing untidy bases.

Fixed an occasional bug where the mouselook camera would do a single wild 360 degree swing.

Fixed an issue where players were sometimes able to pick up things inappropriately while seated.

ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT

The following major features are continuing during development, but are not included in this release. Now that we are in Alpha, you can expect to see all of these items implemented during the first half of 2018.

Dedicated Servers - (Q2 2018)We now have our final plan for implementation and player workflow when it comes to dedicated servers and have begun implementation. The rollout plan is to have servers provided through a 3rd party during Early Access for stress testing, and then DIY hosted servers at a later date.

Basebuilding - Implemented & In Progress
Its finally out! As mentioned above, we still have plenty more we want to add to this system. We would love your feedback once you get your hands on it.

Research 2.1* - Implemented & In Progress

The next steps include working on items that instantly grant you research points, and unlockable blueprints that can only be found out in the world and never be unlocked via the catalog. Expect this to keep getting more content for our next few updates.

Weather and Hazards - (Q2 2018)
As a part of Terrain 2.0 we will also be introducing an entirely new weather and hazard system to challenge players. First on the list is fixing the wind system so it is more predictable and players can rely on it as a source of power generation.

Terrain 2.0 - (Q2 2018)

Not much has changed here. The terrain system is now stood up, and final tools are being implemented to account for item placement in the world. Adam has begun generation of terrain and exploration of new planets and biomes.

Thanks for reading all of this! Really excited to get these sweeping changes into the hands of players.

This update is a followup to the previous Research Update! The team took some much needed time off for the holidays and were going to hold off on updating till February, but decided to keep to the "update every month" schedule to spend time fixing some bigger crash bugs and add another feature to the Research system!

UpdatesYou can find these updates in 0.5.1.0, the current build of the game.

Research System now uses Multi-Phase rates
This release we've made a big update to the research system that debuted in our last update. Now every research subject contains multiple phases with different Byte values. Some items have their most valuable phase early, some much later, and some in between. So if you really want to maximize your research operations, you have lots of new decisions to make about what to research, when, and for how long. To help you make these decisions and figure out how much you want to min-max as a player, the Control Panel on the Research Chamber now shows a timeline of all the current item's phases.

If your current research subject has moved into a lower-rate phase, and want to replace it something that's higher value, you can stop the current research operation and and load in the new subject right away. But be careful, stopping a research operation early means sacrificing any uncollected points! So don't be reckless, okay?

Update to the lighting system has been implementedIn this patch we included an overhaul to the lighting system. The main goal was to get the game running using the ACES tone mapper, so we could then get the game running in HDR in a future update. That meant spending lots of time recreating the look of Astroneer in a completely new system. We aren't completely done tweaking this, but overall this approach is a huge step in the right direction.

If you want to see the other stuff that happened this month, check out our vlogs for weekly insight to what the team is doing. The most recent one shows off the new Basebuilding system:

FIXES

BUGS

[AS-1522] - Fixed a number of issues that were causing save files to be deleted when the game crashed or the application was closed. In the most common case, this occurred when very large saves took enough time to write out that the user had time to close the window before the file finished.
[AS-1958] - Fixed an issue causing inconsistent playback of Gas Hazard audio
[AS-2097] - Fixed a minor issue where the Astroneer could still walk around when scrolling through the pages of the Help screen.
[AS-2104] - Fixed an annoying Multiplayer bug which prevented the Client player from exiting a flipped vehicle in Multiplayer games.
[AS-2113] - By adjusting a few things in the engineering team’s favorite part of the code, local wind effects should now only spawn for the relevant player rather than all players in a Multiplayer game.
[AS-2158] - Fixed a bug where the Research platform remained in the "completed" state if it lost power while in that state.
[AS-2172] - Base platforms no longer have "ghost" slots on the front that store only Compound. Goodbye, secret Compound storage.

CRASHES

With automated crash reporting coming online last month, during this release cycle we focused on fixing some of our most common crashes. There are a dozen or so more, but are pretty technical so I tried to summarize them here.

[AS-2148] - Fixed a crash that occurred when entering the pause menu
[AS-2150] - Fixed a crash that occurred while printing an item
[AS-2153] - Fixed a crash that occurred while opening your backpack in certain situations
[AS-2155] - Fixed a crash that occurred while loading a save game

ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT

We just completed a comprehensive overhaul to the roadmap! Now you can see projected time frames for upcoming content, as well as our ideas for free post launch content. The following major features are continuing during development, but are not included in this release.

Dedicated ServersWe currently have a dedicated server running with a third party that we can connect to. There are plenty of bugs still yet to deal with, but we are getting closer and closer to public launch.

Basebuilding
We have already completed a couple of playtests, but this is feeling really great right now. If you watched the above vlog, you can catch some glimpses of basebuilding in action, but here is an image that Spencer made during one of our recent playtests that sums up a lot:

(none of the above art is final*)

Research - Implemented & In Progress

We just keep going! This update As with all of the new systems we are shipping, these are just base implementations that we will now work on expanding. Multi Phase items are now in, and the next steps include working on items that instantly grant you research points, and unlockable blueprints that can only be found out in the world and never be unlocked via the catalog. Expect this to keep getting more content for our next few updates.

Terrain 2.0, Weather, and Hazards

This is still in a similar place as last update. Zabir is working hard on ironing out some of the last authoring tools that the art team will use to create planets, biomes, and weather. The next step here will be generating one of the existing playable planets with the new system for testing!

Also, the first versions of aggressive flora were shown off in the last vlog. We are now working on making variations that utilize some of the cool behaviors Andrew created.

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update Monday, December 18th, 2017. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines Monday, December 18th, 2017.

The Research Update is an entirely new way to play Astroneer. As part of our Alpha launch, we wanted to lay a solid foundation by updating our core game loop. Now, using the new Catalog and Research Chamber, players can use Bytes to unlock the blueprints they want. This update also includes our first module that uses "streaming power", as well as changes to resource colors and some under the hood performance changes while we continue our ongoing effort to improve game stability. Also, as mentioned earlier, we are moving into the Alpha phase of development, which means that going forward, we will be adding content and changes to the game with every update until we reach Beta. For a list of upcoming features and expected launch windows, check the roadmap update below!

Updates
You can find these updates in 0.5.0.0, the current build of the game.

Complete Overhaul of the Research System

The research system has been completely changed from the ground up. This will allow us to add new items to the game on a consistent basis, while giving players direct ways to unlock the items they want. Here's how it works:

1. We have introduced a concept called Bytes. Bytes are the way Astroneers will unlock items in the new research system.

2.Getting Bytes requires researching items at the new Research Chamber. Items that are researchable include: Research Chests found in the world, and resources like Compound, Resin, etc. We will be expanding the list of researchable items in the future.

3. Use the backpack Catalog to unlock blueprints. After you have accumulated enough bytes to unlock the items you want, open up your Catalog in your backpack to send data to Exo Dynamics in exchange for the blueprint to create said item.

There are a few general tips for this new system. Research Chambers require a constant flow of power to continue gathering Bytes. That means power infrastructure like Batteries, Generators, Solar panels, and Wind generators will become extremely important. You can Overclock your platforms to produce more bytes by increasing the amount of power the platforms receive.

Added the new and improved Research Chamber
The new Research Chamber is our first platform using "streaming" power, a system we are going to move to completely in the future. Now, rather than placing a research chest on the platform and getting a random item, you research objects to accumulate data, which you can then use to unlock whatever items you would like from your backpack. These platforms all stack, so the more powered platforms with research you have going, the more Bytes you will accumulate!

You can also Overclock your Research Chamber to accumulate Bytes faster. Examine the module connected to the platform to see the rate of Bytes, and also check if you are operating at maximum efficiency.

Players should also be aware that after you add a researchable item to the Chamber, you cannot stop the process without destroying the contents. Cancelling for any reason means you lose the Bytes left in that subject!

Added the new backpack Catalog ModuleThe Catalog is your central hub for unlocking printable blueprints for items. Once you have enough Bytes, open the catalog using the backpack key while the backpack is open, or just click on it when your backpack is stowed. On the top if it's screen you will see the rate of Bytes Per Minute (BPM) as well as your total accumulated Bytes, and on the bottom, you can scroll through researchable items and unlock them by clicking on the green button. To cycle through the categories of research, press the buttons with the icons above the main window.

First Implementation of the new "streaming" power system
As the first step in getting basebuilding online, the Research Chamber uses the new streaming power system to operate. That means rather than having base modules use a power bar that has to continue refilling, modules using the new mechanic search the network for sources of power and then stay connected to them as long as the power keeps coming in.

Implemented new resource colors
Keeping with our ideal to try and base items in our game on actual science, we worked on updating resource colors. Items like malachite should now better reflect their real world counterparts. These are still a work in progress.

UI updates
The game now has a few usability and informational tweaks. The first is a prompt to let players know that an old save is most likely unsupported and buggy. Upon loading the older save, the game will warn you about the potential for bugs and less than ideal performance. We also added a new message of the day area on the home screen, with a link to patch notes so you can check them out anytime.

Added a new in-game tutorial
Players will now have an on-screen prompt upon starting new saves that explains updated mechanics and content! Press F1 on your keyboard or the "View" button on your controller to pull up these tutorials at any time.

Automatic Crash Reporting Implemented
Now, if you crash as a result of a bug, the game will automatically send a report to us for triage. We might still ask for crashdumps from time to time, but this will help us better track crashes and how many players they effect.

New Soundtrack Music now added to the existing soundtrack songs

Purchasers of the Astroneer soundtrack will get the new Soundtrack Volume 2 by Rutger Zuydervelt for free! If you want to purchase a physical copy, head over here! Riley also added new sounds for the Research Chamber and Catalog.

If you want to see the other stuff that happened this month that didn't make it, check out our vlogs for weekly insight to what the team is doing. This month the team showed off some new hazard behaviors that you should be seeing in game really soon.

Bug Fixes

[AS-1308] - The game now auto-saves appropriately when force quitting via the window “x” in the top right corner or by pressing ALT+F4.

[AS-1713] - Fixed a visual issue where Client player’s dropship had no thrusters in Multiplayer games.

[AS-1762] - Players can no longer hold objects after death or during the re-launch animation from orbit.

[AS-1816] - Fixed a few issues with quick stowing of items not interacting well with the backpack printer.

[AS-1829] - Fixed the Terrain Brush color ring to reflect the player color in the 'tool disabled' state (it’s no longer fuschia).

[AS-1832] - Fixed a few other instances of Client players getting stuck in a wheelie while driving a Rover in Multiplayer games.

[AS-1834] - Fixed an issue in Multiplayer games where the soil burn-off effect on the drill did not display for Client players

[AS-1876] - Fixed a bug in Multiplayer games on Xbox One where the 'No Power' text and symbol were not visible on Modules to Client players

ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT

The following major features are continuing during development, but are not included in this release. Now that we are in Alpha, you can expect to see all of these items implemented during the first half of 2018.

Dedicated Servers - (Q2 2018)We are currently working diligently with a 3rd party to start standing up the dedicated server experience. There are unanswered questions regarding ownership & persistence, but we expect to be shipping our first dedicated server experience during Q2 of 2018.

Basebuilding - (Q1 2018)Right now the team is working on some elements that will will completely change how you build your bases, and creating "tiers" of base modules that will scale up as your Astroneer starts to master the solar system. We want there to be a sense of progression when creating bases, so that your initial base looks way different than a base belonging to a seasoned Astro. That doesn't just mean bigger, that means more complex, but also more rewarding. Right now you could technically burn organic on 30 small generators to power a big base, but what if you could just upgrade your base with more powerful and automated power sources to replace them all? The initial version of basebuilding will be shipping some time in Q1 2018.

Research 2.1* - Implemented & In Progress

The first version of this is out, but that doesn't mean we are done. As with all of the new systems we are shipping, these are just base implementations that we will now work on expanding. The next steps include working on items that instantly grant you research points, and unlockable blueprints that can only be found out in the world and never be unlocked via the catalog. Expect this to keep getting more content for our next few updates.

Weather and Hazards - (Q1 2018)
As a part of Terrain 2.0 we will also be introducing an entirely new weather and hazard system to challenge players. You should have gotten a taste of this in last weeks vlog. Rather than just being challenged by gas bags and dust storms, we are going to implement different kinds of weather effects, and aggressive flora that will challenge your exploration of the solar system.

Terrain 2.0 - (Q2 2018)

I will save you the technical talk and just say that creating new planets, biomes and caves has begun. There is still a long process to tweak the procedural system, but T2.0 is slowly being turned over from engineering to the art team so they can begin making much more complex planets with unique challenges to face.

Holy hell this was a long one. Thanks to everyone who has been sharing, reporting bugs, and providing feedback on the current state of Astroneer and keep the info coming in so we can make it the best game it can possibly be! Looking forward to continue updating the game on a regular basis!

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update Monday, November 13th, 2017. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines Monday, November 13th, 2017.

Update 221 is a followup to the Excavation update, including an update to rover connections, some quality of life changes, and bugfixes/ multiplayer fixes. While we continue work on a major December milestone and large content update, we wanted to still ship a patch on our monthly cadence.

Updates
You can find these updates in 0.4.10221.0, the current build of the game.

Added rigid joints between rovers
The old rover joints created all sorts of physics issues caused by the individual rover bodies flipping over, colliding with other rovers in the train, and generally just being extremely wonky. The new joints are much more rigid, allowing for more stable rover trains overall. As always, rovers are still a work in progress, and we hope to have a complete overhaul of their physics, maneuverability, and controls when we get to our 1.0 launch. Note: Rover trains are now limited to 4!

Patch Notes now on the home screenBoth Steam and Xbox "Play Anywhere" users should now see a "Patch Notes" button on the home screen of their game. This first iteration will point to Excavation Update changes, but in the future this link will change dynamically and have "message of the day" type information.

Contextual Quick Stow enabled
This feature is a small but extremely helpful one. Currently Astroneers have three kinds of storage. Backpack space, Aux Slots (top of the backpack), and the terrain tool slots. Things like augments are useful on the terrain tool or stored in the backpack, while solar panels and small wind vanes want to be on the top of your backpack to be useful. With this new behavior, while quick stowing items, (Shift + Mouse 1) on PC (Right Trigger + X) on Xbox items will naturally try and slot to the place that makes the most sense. This should also work with items currently in your inventory, so swapping a solar panel to your aux slots should be a bit easier now!

New music and sound implemented

[AS-1822] - Implement New Music Assets

[AS-1839] - Audio - Update "negative" UI sound effect

[AS-1861] - Audio - cleaned up foley SFX

Oxygen/Power/Resource Plinths removed from planets

The "infinite" power and oxygen towers in the game have been removed. They were first implemented as a "fix" for players that got lost, but their frequency changed the exploration experience in a bad way. Exploring far away from your base should be viewed as a trek that requires planning and preparation. You can still find oxygen and power on cave walls, but otherwise, plan ahead or bring a vehicle or meet almost certain death.

If you want to see the other stuff that happened this month that didn't make it, check out our vlogs for weekly insight to what the team is doing. Of particular interest is Spencer's work on basebuilding, which caused him to visually explore what monster truck rovers might look like:

Bug Fixes

[AS-1752] - Hydrazine Catalyzer now shows the name of the resource (Ammonium) required to make Hydrazine.

[AS-1779] - Fixed an issue where the Fuel Condenser wouldn’t fill an entire canister with fuel in five battery cycles.

[AS-1803] - Fixed an issue where empty canisters some times display as full on Client

[AS-1805] - Fixed a Multiplayer issue where the Mineral Extractor module would become temporarily invisible for the Client player.

[AS-1806] - Fixed an issue where the ‘'Enclosed 1-Seat' would be un-selectable in Vehicle Bay after the player cycled away from printing it.

[AS-1815] - Player can no longer jump infinitely off of items on the deform tool with the backpack open.

[AS-1817] - Fixed issues with inconsistent power usage by Augments.

[AS-1818] - Objects dropped from backpack upon death are no longer buried when the player returns, instead items that were slotted into the Deform Tool are now found on a Deform Tool near the body.

[AS-1819] - Fixed some awkwardness for players getting out of vehicles while they were upside down.

[AS-1830] - Fixed a major Multiplayer issue which prevented players from rejoining a game after they quit to the Main Menu.

[AS-1831] - Fixed a Multiplayer issue where Tether lines would not go dark for Client players when they were disconnected from an oxygen source

[AS-1835] - Fixed a visual-only bug in Multiplayer games where the Mineral Extractor canisters looked full for Client players

[AS-1856] - Crane controls once again work for gamepads!

[AS-1868] - Fixed a crash in Multiplayer games that occurred when Client players left the game while seated in the respawn Habitat.

[AS-1906] - Instances of the hilarious, yet annoying Rover Rodeo have been reduced, but may still occur in extraordinarily laggy network situations.

ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT

The following major features are continuing during development, but are not included in this release. This month we spent a ton of time working on "spec" documents for future features like weather/climate, hazardous discoveries, new UI and more.

"Just brought online our first always-on @astroneergame headless dedicated server in the studio. It gets automatic updates from daily builds." "Still a ways from a public roll-out, but a big step closer."

Carl has continued work on dedicated servers, and we are moving towards the goal of having them roll out to the larger community!

Modularity (Basebuilding)

The power system and basebuilding system is making lots of progress. As mentioned above, basebuilding had some unanswered questions around moving base modules, which spawned visual explorations for xl rovers that can house and move base modules.

Research 2.0

We have internally playtested, revised, and subsequently playtested another version of the new research 2.1* gameplay loop. We are now balancing and tweaking it for the larger rollout.

Terrain 2.0

Terrain 2.0 tech is moving along well! We now have the new tech in-engine and work has begun on authoring tools, which will allow us to start crafting new biomes, caves, & planets! There has also been a ton of work to figure out what weather (& weather related dynamic events like lightning, sandstorms, radiation, heat & cold) might look like in an updated planet in Astroneer.

Next month's CU is going to be a big one, as we are celebrating our one year anniversary of launching into early access, and are looking forward to announcing a major milestone in Astroneer's development! Thanks to everyone who has been sharing, reporting bugs, and providing feedback on the current state of Astroneer! I am looking forward to sharing our plans for December soon :).

Considering the visibility of the patch notes from now on, I'll take this opportunity to make more people aware of our Discord server:

Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players should expect this patch to hit their Xbox One X / Xbox One S / Xbox One Consoles, or Windows 10 machines Tuesday November 7th 2017.

This is an update specifically for Xbox One X users, rolling out the Xbox One X Enhanced version of Astroneer! This update pushes the game to render at 4K UHD as well as other enhancements made possible by Xbox One X hardware. There is an equivalent patch on all other Xbox "Play Anywhere" users, but only to make sure that all versions can play multiplayer together. More information about our next content update for all platforms coming later this week!

Xbox 'Play Anywhere' users will receive this update at around 12PM PT Thursday October 12th, 2017.

The Pre-Alpha "Excavation" Update includes new modules & items to craft, an entirely new core gameplay loop, and quality of life updates. It also includes some crucial fixes for vehicles and tweaks to research RNG ahead of Research 2.0 changes. We would like to sincerely thank Early Access players for their feedback in the Experimental 002 test, as that information helped us make changes that eventually made it into this update.

Disclaimer: Up until this point, we have worked hard to make sure older saves were compatible with the newest versions of Astroneer. While old saves will be "compatible" with our newest update, we highly recommend you start a fresh save. Use old saves at your own risk, and please keep bug reports limited to savegames that were started fresh during 215!

UpdatesYou can find these updates in 0.4.101215.0, the current build of the game.

Added the new "Reusable Canister" item

The Reusable Canister is an important part of the Excavation Update. You can now print these canisters from your backpack for one Resin. In 215, they serve as the primary way to store collected soil and refined hydrazine from the new Hydrazine Catalyzer. In the future, we would like these canisters to hold all of the liquid resources Astroneers might encounter or create.

[AS-1130] - Mineral Extractor Module now available to build

The Mineral Extractor is a completely new module used to extract resources from all of the terrain beneath your Astroneer's feet. It works by taking sediment gathered into Reusable Canisters and filtering it, resulting in the resource of your choice. To create resources, simply gather sediment into reusable canisters using your Terrain Tool. Then feed that gathered soil into the module's reservoir, and place a sample in the center of the centrifuge. Upon activation, the Extractor will fill its canisters with soil, and extract out the requested resource. Mineral extraction has entirely new ratios for output, and now includes additional resources not found in our experimental test. The output values and list of resources available will most likely change in the future.

[AS-1131] - Hydrazine Catalyzer Module now available to build

The Space Pizza Oven Hydrazine Catalyzer is now available. The conversion of Hydrazine from a crystalline deposit to fully refined resource in a container was never the intended final experience for gathering fuel. Now, when you would like to fuel a shuttle or thruster, use your terrain tool to gather ammonium crystals, and then catalyze them in this new module. Resuable Canisters are also required to store this newly created Hydrazine fuel. In the future, we hope to possibly use the catalyzer for the conversion of other minerals.

[AS-1566] - New Boost Mod Augment is now available.

The boost mod is a new tool used to gather sediment and/or deform terrain quickly. Printable from your backpack, this augment allows for rapid deforming, at the cost of drawing power from your backpack battery.

Fuel Condenser changes

The fuel condenser now requires multiple charges to create a full canister of refined Hydrazine, and also reusable canisters to put that Hydrazine in. The good news is, this is now our first automated module in the game. Attach medium storage units to this and all of the new modules, and watch them pick and place items when necessary.

New Power Dynamic has now been implemented

There have been significant changes to the backpack power system to better suit our intended progression path. Changes listed below:

The backpack no longer "trickle charges". That means if you run out of power, you are out until you can generate or find more. Be careful!

Printing from the backpack printer now draws power

Augments also now draw power when activated on your terrain tool.

There is also a big change when it comes to portable power generation! The solar panel and small generator have swapped places. Now, the most accessible power in the early game is the non renewable organic based small generator. Printable for one compound, these generators run on foliage gathered from the world. (If you never noticed, grass and bushes with bright colors yield organic.) Although this might seem like a cumbersome change, the small generator allows you to create power both above and below ground at any time. Rather than wait at your base till the sun comes up, you can head underground knowing you will almost always be able to find organic. Removing the trickle charge, and making the small generator more prominent decreases the amount of time you are just waiting around for power to come back, and lets you make deliberate choices about what you want to do.

After playing for a bit and unlocking the smelter, you can then make the necessary copper to unlock the power of the sun. We feel like solar energy in the early game made progression too easy, and didn't present any interesting choices related to power. Most people made small solar panels for their base and themselves within five minutes of every new game and never really had to think about power generation ever again.

Deforming with the drill head fills connected canisters

The drill has long been a great looking piece of machinery, with very little practical use. Now, whenever a drill is used on a vehicle, any connected reusable containers on any slot of the vehicle will fill with the deformed terrain.

Other Excavation Update Changes

Adding terrain now requires stored terrain from reusable containers

[AS-1575] - Added a new Soil Hose to the Deform Tool to show Soil usage between the Deform Tool and Canisters in the Backpack.

[AS-1576] - Added Soil gauge to the Terrain Brush

[AS-1579] - Updated Deform Tool to have a burn off valve to indicate lost terrain when Canisters are full

Revised Soil usage to have a 1:1 relationship with changes made to terrain. ‘Flatten’ mode now collects or consumes Soil contextually.

[AS-1572] - Opening Backpack while the Deform Tool is equipped will now pop out the Deform Tool automatically. Likewise, closing the Backpack with the Deform Tool popped out will automatically equip it.

Pressing the Deform Tool ‘equip’ button/key while the Backpack is open will toggle popping out the Deform Tool instead of closing the backpack and equipping it.

[AS-1573] - Indicator slots can now pull resources from Deform Tool in addition to the the Backpack.

Deform Tool slots are now available when quick-storing items to the Backpack.

When dying, any items attached to the Deform Tool or Backpack’s Auxiliary Slots are dropped with the Backpack itself instead respawning with the Player.

[AS-1583] - When respawning, the Astroneer will now descend from the Space Station in their Habitat.

Added new tutorial sequence to introduce Soil collection and changes to power usage. (Note that new saves will have to complete this tutorial before all starting recipes are made available)

All Augment recipes now (temporarily) unlocked until the new Research System is released. Have fun!

Edit: 11:37PM

Research has received a tuning pass to make it a bit less punishing, in anticipation of Research 2.0 changes.

Medium Solar is now unlocked for every new save

Audio Changes

[AS-1614] Mixed, Mastered, & Implemented new music assets

Our composer Rutger has submitted some new music for Astroneer. You should be hearing this new music in-game intermittently.

Bug Fixes

[AS-1450] - The Thruster now plays sounds when it activates and deactivates
[AS-1516] - Fixed an issue where audio occasionally did not play when removing terrain
[AS-1549] - Fixed an issue where Beacon icons would become inaccurate while viewing from orbit
[AS-1554] - Partially fixed an issue where dead Astroneer backpacks would use world lighting, making it difficult to see what it is on them in low light situations. Future updates will have a more complete fix.
[AS-1709] - Beacon collision model has been changed so it is no longer spherical. No more escaping Beacons!
[AS-1720] - Driving past conduits on Rovers no longer pops attached objects off the front and back connectors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!1
[AS-1740] - Fixed an issue where Rovers would fly into space when loading a save from a rover seat
[AS-1742] - Fixed several issues with Rovers displaying inconsistent physics
[AS-1745] - Fixed an issue with Rovers not having the power to perform basic intended functionality
[AS-1758] - Sandstorm Attenuation should now be working properly
[AS-1763] - Fixed an issue where Rovers would load in incorrect positions when quitting to Main Menu then reloading the Saved Game.

The team heard your feedback about rovers and worked during our bugfix week to fix them up. As always though, we want to remind you that they are a work in progress! Thanks to the community for reporting, documenting and triage-ing bugs for us to smash!

PROTOTYPING ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT

The following major features are continuing during development, but are not included in this release. Since we are (mostly) out of the prototyping phase, we can start calling this section the roadmap highlight, where we talk about some of the major work being done behind the scenes.

Dedicated Servers

Dedicated servers are moving along nicely. Carl spoke to us on the vlog about what he was specifically working on at the time, including demoing 8 Astroneers on one dedicated server build here locally. The player number is still TBD, and to be fair none of those 8 users were moving or deforming or any of the other things users might do. We can say though that since then we have made great progress, including figuring out the plan for UI and the systems necessary to allow dedicated servers to work within Astroneer. Now we need to build them. Lots of work yet to be done, but some intrepid discord users noticed that SES has uploaded something into the tools section on steam.

Terrain 2.0

T2.0 is now in engine and deformable. That means work has begun to figure out the new authoring tools, as well as optimizing it so we can start creating the interesting terrain that this new, much more efficient system will allow for.

Modularity

While the team was working on this newest update, We didn't want to completely drop any of the boulders we have been pushing towards. To save time and not take away too much from development, Samantha made a paper prototype to work out the modularity game loop. We will have more details about the results of that prototype soon!

Wow this was a SUPER long one. Go forth and live off the land now. Have fun and we can't wait to hear about what you think!

Steam 'Early Access'users will receive this update Friday September 15th, 2017. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines September 15th, 2017.

Update 201 includes some new controls, makes adjustments to tethers, and adds a new item! We as a team are moving out of the prototyping phase and into implementation of our major boulder sized tasks for feedback from the community. We will be updating the roadmap next week with LOTS of info as a result of these last few weeks but I will say this, the goal is to wrap these systems up and move on to Alpha ASAP. More info on that in the bottom prototyping section. Now for notes!

Updates
You can find these updates in 0.3.101201.0, the current build of the game.

Added the Alignment Augment
This new augment creates a flat plane that is perpendicular to the curve of the planet, unlike the existing Flatten mode, which flattens based on a selected voxel and mimics that angle. The Alignment augment will make a flat surface based on the planet's center. When used vertically, it creates curved, column-like walls.

Changes to tether placement
Pressing the “place tether” button will now place a Tether post at the Astroneer’s feet. The post can be moved around after that point. This change affects both Mouse and Controller players. For tethers, we feel these changes are going to have a great benefit to the overall experience. PROTIP: Now when running and placing tethers, drop them as soon as your oxygen line detaches. This will give you maximum length between tethers, while still allowing you to run in the direction you were going.

Gamepad Control Changes
When using the terrain tool, the camera now defaults to a fixed over-the-shoulder view, and holding LT unlocks the cursor and puts you in the old default mode. Clicking RS alters camera zoom distance as before, except that the closest zoom in this mode is very nearly first-person. When you have your terrain tool out, use right stick to aim the terrain reticle, and left stick to move your Astroneer. Now the right stick is universally the way to look, and the left stick will always allow you to move your Astroneer, whether deforming or just running around.

Brendan gave us a walkthrough on this week's vlog, check it out here:

New sounds and updates to old sounds have been implemented

UPDATE: Vehicle animations and winch sounds didn't make it.

[AS-856] - Winch now has audio.

[AS-857] - Connecting two conduits together now has audio.

[AS-1275] - Worklight now has audio

[AS-1309] - Vehicle enter and exit animations now have sound effects.

[AS-1507] - Beacon audio has been updated

Riley has been hard at work fixing some new bugs, and simultaneously using Wwise to add new content. Expect the soundscape of Astroneer to continually get updates.

Tether posts now physically simulate and fall to the ground when deforming terrain under them.
No more floating tethers in the middle of the air, if you deform under them, tethers now respond to those changes and no longer act like possessed space ghosts.'

Vehicle handling changes!
Steering is now more wheel-controlled and the Rovers have been made more stable overall. Players should see less flipping and spiralling when taking Rovers off sweet jumps. Vehicle physics are still a work in progress, and vehicles might still be a bit wonky on planets with lower gravity. This will be addressed in a future update.

Bug Fixes

Crash Fixes:

[AS-1474] - Fixed a rare crash, that according to engineers was “super weird, and something that should never occur,” involving the game trying to access non-existent Rover wheels.

[AS-1482] - Fixed a crash that occurred while trying to change resolution in cases where the settings .ini file had become corrupted.

[AS-1517] - Fixed an edge case where the game would crash while unplugging the controller and holding any button.

[AS-1552] - Fixed a Multiplayer crash that would occur if a Client player joined a game while the Host was not on Terran.

Thanks to last update, the crash list is fairly short and were mainly edge cases. Got a crash? Here’s how to send it over!

Options Menu:

[AS-760] - Two different actions can no longer be assigned to the same key / button.

[AS-1427] - Fixed an issue where audio values reset to 0 after changing them during active gameplay, and then terminating the title.

[AS-1444] - Fixed an issue on Xbox One where brightness setting temporarily persisted when backing out of the pause menu without selecting 'Apply and Resume.'

The options menu is a work in progress, and a few bugs popped up since the last update. Another PROTIP: use the arrow keys to adjust values so you don’t have to click the mouse 1 million times. We will implement sliders down the line.

Audio fixes:

[AS-1475] - Fixed an issue in Multiplayer games, where Smelter audio loop continued playing for the Client player.

[AS-1524] - Fixed an issue where the Heartbeat audio loop continuously played after returning to main menu.

General Fixes:

[AS-1447] - Fixed an issue on Xbox One where players would respawn partially underground after dying by falling

[AS-1527] - Reintroduced the plumbline to Beacons

[AS-1528] - Fixed an issue where items would go on a beautiful journey into space if not collected from an dead Astroneer before a second death occurs.

[AS-1533] - Fixed a major issue where saves were disappearing on Xbox/Win10

Fixed a bug that was causing Rovers to fall through the world when loading into a saved game.

Astroneers should no longer get stuck inside base modules as they are being built.

Fixed a bug where Tethers were not auto-highlighting for selection when playing with a controller.

PROTOTYPING
The following major feature prototypes are going on during development, but are not included in this release.

As mentioned above, our initial prototyping phase is starting to move into implementation. That means we will see faster and more concrete progress that players will be able to get their hands on in coming updates. Now that we have our full team firing on all cylinders, you can expect new things to play in experimental and/or the main versions of the game in almost every update going forward as we push toward our goal of being in Alpha! We are really excited to start getting feedback on the roadmap “boulders” we have been tackling.

Research 2.0
Last update we talked about how our Research 2.0 prototype had been tested internally, and after lots of internal feedback and discussions, implementation has begun. Lots of work to be done here, but we are working towards a completely new progression path that allows players of different playstyles to unlock the things they want to, rather than the current completely randomized system. Sam W. had lots to say about this in a vlog! The plan is to get this into a future experimental build for you all to give feedback on.

Terrain 2.0
While Zabir works hard on the tech, the art team and other engineers are plotting out the new ways we can author interesting and more varied terrain, while still keeping Astroneer’s signature look. To reiterate earlier posts, our new terrain system will allow for all of the above, while simultaneously letting us up the player count in multiplayer sessions.

Dedicated Servers
In case you missed the announcement, we hired our last Engineer (for now ;]) Carl, who will be helping push forward all tech related to dedicated servers, online persistence, and more. We have also identified our partner for hosting, which we will announce at a later date!

Modularity
Modularity has advanced very nicely. After the initial prototype was validated, Aaron has been working on the specifics of how the system will work with other in game loops. During that process, the need was brought up for another system to get an overhaul which leads to the next section.

Power Refactor
I refuse to add another 2.0 so let’s go with refactor! A couple of weeks back, Elijah did a segment on the vlog where he talked about how we are redoing the power system. Go watch that. To sum it up: in order for bases to be modular, we need to allow players to deliberately control power flow and lines. While refactoring that though, we also are working on gameplay elements that allow players to make more interesting bases. Want to build an underground base but use solar power? Set up your solar farm on the surface, and pipe the power down deep underground. This is one example, but I hope it is enough for you to understand the interesting ways the power refactor can change the ways you play Astroneer.

Once again, this is a long one! Thanks for reading and please do not hesitate to reach out with feedback, suggestions, bugs, and encouragement for the team!

I will reiterate here: this build has some bugs. Will list some known issues below:

1. The death bug where your items seemingly spawn at your base is still present. Still need to go to your death location to retrieve items.

2. Sounds (music, ambient, storms) are pretty bugged right now. This dev branch did not get all of the Wwise updates that Riley has been working on, because he is focusing on making sure the next main update is sorted. This will get fixed, but we didn't want to hold experimental longer to get his extensive fixes applied in time.

3. Clients sometimes can unearth research chests and then they cannot interact with them. This will almost always result in an eminent crash.

4. Some controller bugs when playing in multiplayer. This will be fixed shortly after release.

5. Clients having issues using the refinery. This will be fixed shortly after release.

To activate the experimental branch, right click on Astroneer in your Steam game library. Then navigate to Properties > Betas and choose experimental - latest untested builds in the dropdown. If the update doesn't happen right away, restart Steam.

Note: while this experimental build is only for Steam users, we are trying to find a solution to bring future experimental updates to Xbox and Windows 10.

Gameplay Changes

As the title indicates, terrain is now considered a resource! That means a few significant changes to the core gameplay loop.

Adding or flattening terrain requires terrain “ammo” in containers.

This will likely be a significant change for some people. You can no longer add terrain indefinitely, even when tethered to your base. Instead, you'll need a ready supply of collected sediment in order to add terrain to the environment. However, while flatten also requires a sediment supply during this test, we'll be updating it soon to both fill and deplete canisters depending on whether it is removing or adding terrain.

Deforming terrain no longer uses power

We've removed the power draw from deforming terrain. This means that while adding or flattening terrain now requires a Sediment supply, removing terrain is completely unrestricted, even if you are disconnected from your tether line. You'll no longer find yourself staring at your backpack's battery meter, waiting for it to slowly charge in order to continue deforming.

This change allows for you to think more strategically about your backpack power usage. In exchange for removing the terrain tool's power draw, we're adding more uses for power in the form of items and abilities that you'll use intermittently. We've started by having Augments draw power, but we'll be introducing lots more uses going forward. And we've also removed the backpack's "trickle" charge, so you'll have to pay more attention to your power supply when it's in use.

Terrain and Hydrazine are now stored in reusable Canisters

Every Astro will start with one reusable canister. Additional canisters can be printed from your backpack at the cost of 1 Resin. While deforming, terrain removed from the environment will fill up canisters attached to the backpack or terrain tool. If all canisters are full (or no canisters are attached), collected terrain is burned off and permanently destroyed.

New Items & Modules

Reusable Canister

Can hold either Sediment (terrain) or Hydrazine (with other resources to come later). Printable from backpack for 1 Resin. Not to be confused with the oxygen canister, which still costs one titanium.

Ammonium

The previous behavior of harvesting canisters full of Hydrazine directly from "fuel" crystals was not intended to be a long term solution. Mining these crystals in the wild will now provide Ammonium, an entirely new resource. Ammonium can be refined into Hydrazine at the new Refinery module. Left unrefined, Ammonium is stable and will not detonate when caught in an explosion.

Sediment Processor Module

This new module allows you to filter out the trace resource deposits contained within collected sediment. The amount of resources produced depends on the rarity of the selected resource. For the purposes of this test, you'll be able to filter out Compound, Resin, Organic, Malachite, and Laterite.

To use the Sediment Processor Module, gather Sediment (Terrain) with your Terrain Tool into any available canister (empty, or partially filled with Sediment) attached to your Terrain Tool or Backpack. Then, transfer the collected Sediment by attaching canisters to the slot at the top of the Module's tank. Note that you can attach partially filled canisters, so long as they contain Sediment.

Once the Module's tank is completely filled, attach the desired resource to be filtered to the slot on the bottom-left. (If the resource can be filtered, an indicator hologram will appear on the Output slot on the bottom-right).

Hydrazine Refinery Module

The Refinery Module is the only way to convert Ammonium into refined Hydrazine. You can also still produce Hydrazine using the Fuel Condenser (but with a few changes which are covered below).

To use it, gather Ammonium from purple crystals found in the wild. Then, place Ammonium on an open Input slot on the bottom of the Module, along with an empty canister on a slot along the top. You can refine up to four nuggets of Ammonium at a time (provided you have a canister for each). Press the button, and the refinery will convert Ammonium into refined Hydrazine.

Fuel Condenser

We've made some adjustments to the Fuel Condenser to make compatible with the introduction of resuable canisters, and to better balance it alongside the new Refinery. The Condeser still produces Hydrazine from power alone, but you'll now need to provide a Canister for it be stored in. Additionally, filling an empty canister now requires multiple full charges.

To minimize tedium, we're adding a 'Set It and Forget It" mode. Once the activation button is pressed, the Condenser will automatically re-activate each time its battery is charged until the attached canister has completely filled.

Aside from being a balance update, we're also using this change to potentially pave the way for automation systems going forward.

Please be aware that this prototype and build are experimental, and unforseen bugs and behaviors will pop up. Also understand that saves in the experimental branch will most likely not carry over or be compatible with future experimental tests. Enjoy them at your own risk! If you want to see a live demo in action, you can check outthis stream replay over on Youtube! Have fun and be sure to share your thoughts. We will have more details soon about our next experimental test, and some follow up questions sometime next week after everyone has gotten their hands dirty with this one.

Steam'Early Access'users will receive this update immediately.Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can expect this hotfix to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines next week.

This hotfix addresses issues resulting from Update 199:

Fixed an issue where audio settings for music and sounds defaulted to zero

Fixed a multiplayer crash related to clients grabbing research chests and then crashing

Fixed an issue that would cause some savegames to cause the game to crash on load.

Fixed some default resolution issues. This is still a work in progress, and users who still have resolution issues should follow these steps: Go to - SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Astroneer Pre-Alpha\Astro\Saved\Config and delete your GameUserSettings.ini file. OR Users"your username"\AppData\Local\Astro\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor.

Thanks to all users who reported these issues with crash reports and information.

Steam'Early Access'users will receive this update Thursday August 17th. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines August 17th.

UPDATE: 8/18
We are deploying a hotfix to Update 199. It will be available immediately on Steam, and will be pushed to Xbox Play Anywhere early next week. It includes three fixes:1. Fixed audio settings to not always default to zero.
2. Fixed a multiplayer crash related to clients grabbing research chests and then crashing
3. Fixed an issue that would cause some savegames to cause the game to crash on load.

Update 199 is the first update with the full added force of our new but extremely well rounded Engineering team. While the designers were busy pushing out our first experimental tests for new content, as well as making HUGE leaps forward on Modularity, Research 2.0, & Terrain 2.0 (more on that later) the engineers worked to bring Astroneer to a MUCH more stable state. These notes will contain a somewhat abbreviated list of these extensive fixes, but I want to take a second and sincerely thank everyone who took time to pack up crash reports and saves to send over to the team. They were a huge help and benefit the larger community in extremely meaningful ways. The team was able to close out dozens of bugs in the main branch of the game, as well as numerous ones discovered during our Experimental Tests. Every tweet, email, message, & post means a lot. Thank you.

Because of all this infrastructure/prototyping/stability work, we are still not delivering huge content drops. We know this might frustrate some, but if you want to read about all of the awesome stuff in the pipeline that is coming, jump down to the PROTOTYPING section of the notes. Astroneer is going to be bigger and better than we ever could have imagined, and we appreciate everyone's patience while we lay the foundation for all the content this game will be getting. Ok! Now for the notes:

UPDATES

You can find these updates in 0.3.10199.0, the current build of the game.

[AS-896] - The Options Menu has been completely overhauled.

The Options Menu has received the first pass of a complete visual and functional overhaul, resolving several bugs with the prior implementation. This update adds lots of options including some to help people with lower end hardware. You can now:

Keybindings on PC will now remain saved between sessions, with some added options like mouse sensitivity, toggling the hold to sprint, and others.

Right now navigating and adjusting options in this menu is a little wonky, as you have to use the keyboard. Didn't want to hold it out of this update just for that reason. This menu will continue to be updated over the course of the next few releases.

Known issue: 8/17/17 - When the game is in fullscreen, changing resolution has no effect. We are working on a fix!

[AS-994] - The Trade Module has received some bug fixes and interaction improvements, such as:

The maximum return value is always the number of slots on the trade platform rocket.

Now, once you reach the maximum return value, you will not be able to add more resources to any remaining open slots.

If you add an item that pushes the trade value above the maximum, or switch the return item to something with a more favorable exchange rate, the actual return will always be clamped to the maximum.

Resources that are on the trading platform already when the maximum return value is hit or exceeded can always be removed (but cannot be attached again unless removing them causes the return value to dip below the maximum).

[AS-1305] - Beacon colors can now be changed.

This longtime request has now been implemented. Beacons now serve as aids for finding a previous spot, as well as for navigation. Use the in-game UI to cycle through colors or choose the 'red strobe" option for emergencies.

[AS-1145] - Audio has been migrated to the Wwise Engine from Unreal 4 and remixed using the new technology.

Wwise audio engine integrated into Unreal 4. All audio in the game now plays through Wwise instead of UE4’s built in audio engine. The following changes and improvements have been made to the audio engine. Want to hear about these changes directly from Riley? We go over them in this weeks vlog:

New cave exploration music tracks added.

Remixed / mastered existing music with additional instruments added. Tracks broken down into separate layers to leverage Wwise game states.

Music becomes distorted when low on oxygen.

Music changes based on time of day.

Music now streams rather than load entirely on game start, reducing RAM impact

Sound is sent through a reverb when underground.

Footstep sfx are affected by the movement speed of the player.

Ambience loops no longer heard when at the main menu or orbiting a planet.

Both the medium and small generator’s audio slows down when their “fuel” is near empty.

When death occurs, sounds stop playing earlier.

Music does not abruptly start again when death occurs, it now fades back in over an extended period of time.

Sandstorm rock impact added for when the player gets hit by a boulder.

Low oxygen breathing audio now triggered more abruptly rather than a gradual fade in.

Rover tire audio no longer plays when vehicle is in the air.

Rover engine audio no longer plays when rolling unpowered down an incline

Rover engine audio revs when vehicle is being powered and leaves the ground.

Rover shutdown sound added

Improvements to the active voice count in the game, allowing for slight performance gains.

[AS-1259] - Each suit now has a unique Death animation.

As shown off in Vlog 11, some of Gene's new death animations are now in! ??

FIXES

In addition to numerous under-the-hood fixes which will improve your play experience, the following live issues have been fixed. Thank you to everyone in the community who has reported and shared details with us on these issues.

Fixed several issues causing Multiplayer crashes which occurred when Client players returned to their base after venturing far away from it.

Fixed numerous Multiplayer crashes related to interacting with items in the world as a client

[AS-1297] - Fixed minor but extremely annoying issue where newly built base conduits would not follow the hologram path.

[AS-1329] - Upon death, previous backpack inventory should no longer appear hovering next to the Habitat.

[AS-1335] - Fixed a major issue where performance would severely degrade when players opened the Options menu

[AS-1369] - Fixed issue where incomplete nuggets of Power were not consumed when placed on a slot.

[AS-1334] - Fixed issue where Terrain Tool Augments were not working correctly

Some of these are grouped up, but included multiple issues. The main branch of the game should be much more stable, although we are sure there are still some lingering issues out there. Multiplayer crashes should be much less frequent, and performance should have improved across the board.

NOTE: If you previously used INI tweaks to adjust Astroneer performance, we recommend you reinstall the game, or revert your config files. We upgraded Unreal, and old tweaks to the .ini file will most likely cause you to crash or encounter unintended behaviors. Many crash reports we receive are related to the adjustment of source files, and we cannot offer support for saves broken by these adjustments.

KNOWN ISSUES

On Xbox One, any changes made to the options menu will not persist between sessions. This will be fixed soon.

Some “vocal” efforts play on the server when activated by the client.

Sound for some players is defaulted to 0 on startup. Get into that new menu and turn it up!

When the game is in fullscreen, changing resolution has no effect

PROTOTYPING
The following major feature prototypes are going on during development, but are not included in this release.

Modularity Prototype has been internally validated

Modularity was another topic that got teased during vlog 012. This is the exact moment it flashes across the screen. Aaron showed the team a prototype that confirmed our feelings all along: building with modular pieces looks awesome. Now comes the hard part of making it fit in with the core gameplay loop, among many many other considerations. We will update with more details soon.

Research 2.0 "minimum viable" prototype was tested internally.

I can't share lots of details about this right now, but Research 2.0 is going really well. If you missed it, some eagle eyed Astroneers pulled an image from vlog 012 that shows off the current direction, WHICH IS VERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS. This still has a long way to go, but a much more deliberate research system for progression feels really great and we cannot wait to get this into experimental for you all to try.

Dedicated servers are now working outside of the editor.

Another milestone in the long push to get dedicated servers operational. Andrew has been working on getting these spun up for us to try internally. While we still need to optimize and work out a TON of infrastructure tasks related to the current game as well as future features like online persistence, we are nonetheless one step closer to rolling out dedicated server support.

Terrain 2.0 new spherical planet is in progress.

Zabir is working on applying the Terrain 2.0 prototype to spherical planets. If you haven't heard, Terrain 2.0 will allow us to dramatically increase performance, which will allow the game to run better, but more importantly, lift the multiplayer player limit. We are still a way off from doing that, but it gives some context for the importance of Terrain 2.0.

Ok this has been a long one! Thanks for reading, and as always please don't be afraid to reach out with feedback, bugs, and suggestions! Btw: we are 100 subscribers away from 20k on Youtube! If you haven't already, go over and subscribe so you can get weekly updates on what we are working on!

Steam'Early Access'users will receive this update immediately.Xbox 'Play Anywhere'players can expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines in the next 48 hours.

This hotfix focuses on fixing some known issues for Xbox "Play Anywhere" users, as well as fixes for both platforms.

As always, the team would like to thank everyone supporting Astroneer in early access, especially for sharing bugs, inspiration, stories, videos, and streams with us and the rest of our amazing community.

UPDATES

You can find these updates in 197, the current build of the game.

The effects of storms have now been scaled down. They will still cause things to blow away, but your rovers will now no longer be in perilous danger whenever the wind blows.

This was an unintentional side effect of the engine upgrade, but we liked it and wanted to see what people thought. Unfortunately this resulted in many lost rovers and items. The effect storms now have has still increased overall, but is much less than what it was in 196.

FIXES

The following bugs are now fixed. Thank you to everyone in the community who has reported and shared details with us on these issues.

Upon death, ghost Astroneer corpses appear at your base.

When basebuilding, conduits stray of of their intended path when resin is placed on them

In MP games, Host players will see worklights illuminated for themselves and Client players, but Client players will not see the light

Issue where the transform of an object moving into the backpack isn't set correctly, resulting in the item appearing inside the Astroneer

As a reminder, we also have a test running on the experimental branch of Astroneer. You can read all of the details about that test here:

Steam'Early Access'users will receive this update Friday July 21st. Xbox 'Play Anywhere' players can also expect this patch to hit their consoles or Windows 10 machines Friday July 21st.

This update adds a new item, as well as fixes to issues in both single and multiplayer sessions. We are continuing our trend of working heads down on long term projects to make Astroneer a scalable and better performing game all around. If you want to know how that is going day to day, you can check out this week's vlog, as well as the entire playlist to see how we have been progressing so far. We know content has been light, so for our next update, we will be rolling out experimental branches of the game while still updating the main branch to allow players to actually get their hands on these new updated core systems on our roadmap. We can't wait for you all who are patiently waiting to finally see the fruits of our labor!

As always, the team would like to thank everyone supporting Astroneer in early access, especially for sharing bugs, inspiration, stories, videos, and streams with us and the rest of our amazing community.

[AS-1190] - A variety of error messages for joining Multiplayer games have been implemented in game and localized in all shipping languages.

[AS-1194] - Set up headless game server to begin the process of dedicated server implementation.

[AS-1196] - Worklight object is now available in the build and printable from the backpack.

[AS-1201] - Distinct Gestures and Idles for Bubble, Pajama, and Bio Suits have been added

[AS-1203] - Adjusted FX to fire off at the right times during animations.

[AS-1081] - Implemented basic gameplay telemetry collection.

The Game no longer triggers an autosave on the first exit from the Dropship.

Backpack shoulder auxiliary slots can hold arbitrary items again.

Oxygen tank cost restored to 1 Titanium.

Build all the worklights you want! This is the first pass on dropping in a "test item". We hope to continue to add items like this while we flesh out core systems, as well as passes on other items that we think have way more potential, like the winch, drill, and beacons, just to name a few. You also now have more personality depending on which Astroneer you choose, as well as reverting the cost of oxygen tanks to titanium. Print some now while they are cheap ;). Dedicated servers are still not ready, but the headless server instance is a good step in the right direction.

FIXES

The following bugs are now fixed. Thank you to everyone in the community who has reported and shared details with us on these issues.

[AS-1118] - Spikers should once again be visible to Client players in Multiplayer games.

[AS-1147] - Client players should no longer be generating different terrain than the Host in Multiplayer games.

[AS-1148] - Fixed a recurring crash during the object update cycle. Object updating is now more efficient.

One of the biggest fixes is gravity for vehicles and spawned items on planets. There still might be a few edge cases here, but for the most part you should be seeing less floaty stuff. Also, multiplayer sessions where players are on different planets should be much more stable.

KNOWN ISSUES

The following minor bugs are known to be in this release and will be addressed in a future update.

Background music tracks may sometimes loop or cut out early.

Base conduit may sometimes extend off the intended trajectory.

The upgrade to the Wwise audio engine has caused some unforseen situations where music does not trigger properly. This will be fixed after this update. Also, our migration to Unreal 4.15 has caused some issues with base conduits. There is a fix in progress, but it didn't make it in time for this update. Expect to see it in the next one.

PROTOTYPING

The following major feature prototypes are going on during development, but are not included in this release. These are tasks that most of the team are focused on right now, which is the reason for the lack of large content drops. As stated above, we will now be rolling new features to experimental to expedite some of this new stuff into your hands.

Controller Prototype - New controller and interaction prototype is nearly ready for public experimental launch. This prototype tries to solve issues with the virtual cursor, and aims to bring the controller experience in parity with a mouse and keyboard configuration.

Terrain 2.0 - Completed Volcano Island prototype to prove out terrain generation in new system. Next up is generation of entire planets using this new prototype.

Modularity - Completed second vehicle modularity prototype for internal playtesting. More concrete details coming within the next few weeks, including possible experimental branch public playtesting.

Research 2.0 - Astroneer ID Card and Interaction Point prototype worked on. Progress made on potential systems for more meaningful research progression. More concrete details coming within the next few weeks, including possible experimental branch public playtesting.

Now that the initial explorations have been done, the team is narrowing it's scope on the boulders on our roadmap. Concrete decisions are being made, resulting in more fleshed out versions of all of these boulders. As addressed in last week's Q&A, our team will now all focus on specific boulders for each content update going forward to bring them to life for experimental testing and or public releases. With the addition of two engineers since our last update, our capacity to move on these large systems has been largely upgraded.

Thanks and see you Friday!

EDIT: Some issues have popped up and will be patched soon!

- In MP games, Host players will see worklights illuminated for themselves and Client players, but Client players will not see the light
- An inconsistent issue where sometimes fall distance is not set accurately for Client players, making Host players appear stuck in the falling animation
- Issue where the transform of an object moving into the backpack isn't set correctly, resulting in the item appearing inside the Astroneer

- Issue where exiting a vehicle while it is still moving kills the player because of a physics bug

- Also: storms now wreak havok on bases, including blowing rovers, items and unhooked modules away. While not entirely unintentional, we should have probably warned players of this new behavior.

- Settings menu causing lots of dropped frames when first accessed. Exiting and entering the menu seems to fix this issue in the meantime.

- Issue where terrain tool mods are not working, or are exhibiting incorrect behaviors